PUNE Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, on Tuesday appealed to the sugar industry to adopt a hybrid production model to switch between ethanol and sugar depending on the price of the end product.
Pawar was addressing the Vasantdada Sugar Institutes’ annual general meeting virtually on Tuesday. This is the second year the general body meeting was held virtually because of Covid-19.
Pawar said, “Major sugar producing countries like Brazil, have adopted the hybrid model and keep switching production between ethanol and sugar depending upon prices. India has enough sugar production, around 305 lakh tonnes. If we consider export of sugar, then also the industry has enough sugar which can be diverted for ethanol production.”
Pawar added, “Central government is promoting ethanol aggressively. Industry must participate to maintain its own economics.”
He said that the differential price system has been introduced for ethanol-based sugar on whether it is produced directly from cane juice or from molasses.