Thread by @finshots

The Association of Sugar Mills wants you to eat more sugar. But why?

“Avoid sugar!” It's the first advice most of us receive whenever we raise concerns about our health. But curiously, that’s not the mantra that ISMA (association of India’s sugar mills) wants us to follow.

So much so that it has launched a knowledge portal meetha.org to educate masses about the benefits of sugar consumption. This whole exercise is quite elaborate and mills have begun an online campaign in order to boost domestic demand, involving workshops and webinars

But why are they are doing it all of sudden? Well, we can largely attribute it to the fact that India has excess stockpiles of sugar.

See, the production of sugarcane attracts farmers because of the relatively high minimum support price (MSP) for the crop

Also, government schemes and policies mandating sugar mills to buy from producers within a specified radius, plus other cost-saving incentives, acts as a safety net for sugarcane farmers and makes it an attractive commodity to grow.

Another major factor is the sturdiness of the crop to withstand fluctuations in weather. In fact, because cane farmers have to put in little effort by way of inputs and manhours in growing these crops as compared to others, it is aptly often considered the ‘lazy crop’.

But the problem is that while cane producers have gone on producing sugar, the consumption has been stagnant since 2015.

Although, India is the largest consumer and the 2nd largest producer of sugar in the world, the per capita consumption of Indians is below the world average.

And so the excess stockpiles have become a headache for the Govt as well as the mills because they have no place to store them.

So yeah... If they have to move the excess stockpiles, they need you to eat more sugar.

It is what it is!!!