📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Sumita Roy Dutta
Business
Sugar Prices Spike as Gas Crisis Forces India to Resume Imports
✍️ The Daily Star
🗓 28 Aug 2026, 01:49 PM
👁 3
Sugar prices have risen sharply as a domestic gas shortage hits production, prompting the government to restart sugar imports.
Domestic sugar prices have surged in recent weeks, reflecting tighter supply conditions across the country. Traders on major commodity exchanges reported a noticeable jump in the benchmark sugar rate, attributing the rise to higher production costs.
The underlying cause is a prolonged natural‑gas shortage that has constrained many sugar mills, which rely on gas for cogeneration and processing. With limited fuel availability, factories have reduced output, tightening the market and pushing prices upward.
In response, the Ministry of Commerce has announced that India will resume sugar imports to stabilise domestic supplies and curb further price escalation. The move marks a reversal of the earlier import ban that was imposed when the country enjoyed surplus production.
Analysts say the import restart, combined with efforts to secure alternative fuel sources for mills, should help ease price pressures over the coming months, though short‑term volatility may persist.
The underlying cause is a prolonged natural‑gas shortage that has constrained many sugar mills, which rely on gas for cogeneration and processing. With limited fuel availability, factories have reduced output, tightening the market and pushing prices upward.
In response, the Ministry of Commerce has announced that India will resume sugar imports to stabilise domestic supplies and curb further price escalation. The move marks a reversal of the earlier import ban that was imposed when the country enjoyed surplus production.
Analysts say the import restart, combined with efforts to secure alternative fuel sources for mills, should help ease price pressures over the coming months, though short‑term volatility may persist.