Sugar cane arrears plunge in India as sweetener prices rally

Mawana Sugars

29/06/2016 09:05

MUMBAI, June 29 (Reuters) - Sugar cane arrears in India have 
plunged to 42.3 billion rupees  ($624.77 million) from a record 
218 billion rupees last year, as a rally in the prices of the 
sweetener allowed mills to pay farmers stipulated prices, the 
government said on Wednesday. 
    Mills have so far paid 92 percent of their cane dues to 
farmers in the 2015/16 marketing year ending on Sept. 30, it 
said in a statement. 
    Last year, record cane arrears forced the government to 
provide incentives for sugar exports. 
    But a 44 percent rally in sugar prices  NSMc1  since the 
start of the marketing year has allowed the government to 
suspend the sugar export subsidy and put a tax on the exports. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1984P3  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N18G46M 
    India is the world's second biggest sugar producer and top 
consumer. 
($1 = 67.7050 Indian rupees) 
 
 (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) 
 ((rajendra.jadhav@thomsonreuters.com; +91-22-6180-7153 ; 
Reuters Messaging: 
rajendra.jadhav.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: INDIA SUGAR/