In a move that would ease prices of sugar, the Uttar Pradesh government has lifted a nearly three-month ban on import of raw sugar into the state, official sources said on Wednesday.
“Cane Commissioner Sudhir M. Bobade has written a letter to the Railway Board stating that it can supply raw sugar in the state,” a government source said.
About eight lakh tonnes of raw sugar have been lying at various ports across the country following the U.P. government’s ban in November on movement of imported raw sugar.
The commissioner in his letter stated that supply of raw sugar was banned in the state in November last year keeping in view the law and order situation, sources said.
The ban on raw sugar was imposed after farmers, who had launched an agitation demanding higher cane price, attempted to torch consignments of raw sugar at some places in the state.
Refusal by cane farmers to sell their produce unless they were paid remunerative prices, coupled with the ban on raw sugar imports by U.P. that hampered sugar production, late last year fuelled a rise in prices of the sweetener that neared Rs 50 a kg last month.
“The government had earlier decided that supply of raw sugar would not be allowed till the time cane crushing was not completed by sugar mills in the state,” they said.
