Govt trying to talk to countries on sugar exports: Minister

The Government is trying to talk to different countries for clearing accumulated sugar produced in India, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.
"We just started working on it. Because quantum of sugar is annually getting accumulated. In the last four years it (the accumulation of sugar) has been quite substantial," she told reporters here.
Pointing out that the accumulation of sugar would make it difficult for the mills to pay the farmers, she said, due to the accumulation of sugar, the situation has become "much critical."
"This is something we are trying to work on. It is very much at the early stages. It is not as if we have already come up with a solution," she said.

"Through the Ministry of External Affairs, we are trying to talk with different governments for their pulses. We are trying to talk to African countries, Myanmar, Canada where there is a possibility of getting their pulses to India and who would prefer to take our sugar (in exchange to the pulses imported). This is one of the ideas we are working," she said.
Sitharaman was here to take part in the conference on 'Policy and Political Support for Achieving the Zero Hunger Challenges', organised by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, here.

Earlier at the conference, she said, there was a need to address issue of distortion on production of some agriculture commodities.

"Even in the pattern of irrigation, emphasis on Maximum Selling Price have made farmers move to go for other areas which could give secure income. So there is a continuous distortion on production of some agriculture commodities," she said.
"As a result, India's basket of agriculture goods is imbalanced," she said.
Referring to rubber produced in India, she said it was of superior quality and the government under the 12th Plan has started encouraging rubber production in non-traditional areas like Tirupura and North East India.
Through such initiative, the total quantum of Indian rubber would increase and it is expected to meet the demand of the domestic rubber industry, she added.