By IANS,
New Delhi : India’s sugar industry has offered all cooperation to the government to ease its shortfall in the domestic market, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said here Monday.
“The attitude of the industry is quite constructive. They are ready to find a solution to overcome the shortage of sugar,” Pawar told reporters after meeting sugar industry representatives here.
The minister, however, did not elaborate on the steps the government and the industry intend to take to overcome the sugar shortage.
India is the world’s second largest cane sugar manufacturer after Brazil, and the news that Indian production would be low this year has already sent world sugar prices to a 28-year high.
Pawar had earlier sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the issue of falling sugar output and soaring prices.
A senior agriculture ministry official said the minister would meet Manmohan Singh later in the day on the sidelines of the ongoing chief ministers’ conference in Delhi.
According to government data, sugar stocks dropped to six million tonnes July 31, down by 21 percent from the stocks available June 30.