Sugar mills must improve efficiency: Chidambaram

Assuring the government's support to the sugar industry, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said mills should raise productivity and efficiency levels, and explore international markets so that India could emerge as the largest sugar producer in the world.

"Nearly 60 per cent of the mills are in the cooperative sector. While some are extremely well managed, some others are poorly managed. The challenge before you and the government is how to revitalise this sector so that all the allied agro sectors benefit," he said, addressing the 70th annual general meeting of the Indian Sugar Mills Association here.

Chidambaram said though the economy was robust and had registered a growth of eight per cent, it was important to sustain this progress in the coming years. He said he would also meet the representatives of the sugar industry before the Budget.

The finance minister said the industry, which fetches the government a revenue of Rs 1,400 crore annually, could ill-afford to be complacent since neighbouring countries like China were trying to catch up.

"China's production of sugar is growing by leaps and bounds. The growth rate (of sugar) is among the highest in the world," he said.

The minister urged mills to look at international markets for both imports and exports. "In the world we are living today, a country could be an exporter for some years and an importer in other years," he said.

Clearing the doubt over raw sugar import under the advanced license scheme, he said: "Importers of raw sugar have to obey export obligation on a tonne-to-tonne basis and not on a grain-to-grain basis."

The industry was apprehensive of importing raw sugar due to a lack of clarity on the notification issued by the government this year.

Speaking on the occasion, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the need of the hour was to ensure that sufficient sugarcane was developed and grown in the mill area for the economic viability of sugar factories.