Expect to sell 22-23 lakh tonne of sugar in Sep, Oct: ISMA

The months of September and October are likely to see sugar sales of roughly 22-23 lakh tonne said Abinash Verma, Director General of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Verma shared his outlook on sugar demand-supply situation during the festive season and impact from imposition of stock limits.Below is the transcript of Abinash Verma’s interview to Manisha Gupta on CNBC-TV18.Q: How do you look at the festive demand and the kind of impact that has had on the prices?A: Generally, this is the time for the festive demand because the Dussehra is around the corner and then we have Diwali and September-October are the months when the buyers take extra sugar from us. And that is what we have seen as extra demand coming from the market. But it is not having a big impact on the prices because the government in the last 3-4 months has taken several steps as there was this rumour in the market which has come out true today. The government has come out with the notification under which the sugar mills cannot keep more than 37 percent of their sugar availability in the current season as on September 30 and 24 percent at the end of October. So, therefore, this extra sale pressure amongst some of the sugar mills, not everybody, 10-12 percent of the industry might be under pressure to sell some extra sugar, that is putting a control or a cap on the sugar prices. Now, the sugar prices are not going up. It almost flat for the last 4-6 months and I do not think that the festival demand will actually push up the prices because of these controls.Q: I also want to draw your attention to the kind of disparity that we have seen in the retail prices. Of course the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai have seen prices trade around Rs 41-42 per kg. But there have been some disruptions for cities like Jammu, Agartala. We have seen prices gain as high as Rs 46, even Rs 55 per kg in some places.A: The cities that you have picked up has a kind of distortion, are the cities which are far-flung, they are very far away from the sugar producing states. Jammu is a difficult territory to reach or it is a long distance away. Agartala, north eastern states, again if you pick up Port Blair or Lakshadweep, obviously, these places, the prices are going to be on the higher side because of that extra transportation first and obviously, it is a deficit state and prices will be higher. But, if you look at the prices in the metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, that should give you a very fair indication of the all-India average sugar prices at the routine level which would be around Rs 40-41.