Indian sugar futures were steady on Friday afternoon after hitting a contract low as bargain buying outweighed ample supplies and weak demand in the spot market The key June contract on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange was down 0.10 percent at 2,966 rupees per 100 kg at 0901 GMT, after hitting a contract low of 2,960 rupees earlier.
"Demand is weak as traders in Maharashtra are not buying. They are protesting the proposal of a local body tax," said an official with a co-operative sugar mill based in Satara, Maharashtra. Maharashtra state government has proposed a local body tax, which would be imposed by local municipal corporations.
Mills usually pay farmers a large chunk of the cane price immediately after harvest or within two weeks. Spot sugar fell 3 rupees to 3,021 rupees per 100 kg in the Kolhapur market in the top-producing Maharashtra state. Demand for sugar from ice-cream and beverage makers typically rises during the summer. India is likely to produce 24.6 million tonnes of sugar in 2012-13, an industry body said, against an annual demand of about 23 million tonnes. India's sugar output eased 2 percent to 24.1 million tonnes in the first six-and-a-half months of the season that started on October 1, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said in a statement.
Comments
Comments are closed.