Guest Lecture on Sugar Industry

Guest Lecture on Sugar Industry

by Mr. Anil Shukla, Secretary General - The Sugar Technologist's Association of India (STAI)

Today, September 08, 2011 we had an eminent guest, Mr. Anil Shukla, deliver a lecture on the sugar Industry and associated functions in our economy.The Speaker gave very valuable insights into the sugar industry and associated industries with the sugar industry. The industries primarily associated with the sugar industries are :

1) Raw Material Procurement Supply Chain

2) Transportation

3)Infrastructure

4)Equipment and Machinery

5)Diesel and Biofuel

6) Automobile

7)Waste disposal

8)Carbon Credits and Environment

Sugar industry is regulated by the government of India. On one hand, there is a MSP (Minimum Support Price) to be paid to the sugarcane cultivators. Because of fixed MSP, the cost of raw material is fixed and leaves very little scope for any reduction in cost of sugarcane procurement from cultivators. On the other hand, the major output of the sugar industries is to be sold to the government of India. The government buys around 80% of the sugar produced at a fixed price. The sugarcane industries are allowed to sell only 20% of the end product in open market at competitive rates. This regulation is currently being opposed on a large scale by the union of sugar industry owners.

Of the 20% sugar which is sold in the open market, there are various brands which are now selling packaged sugar. 80% of the sugar which is bought by the government is then distributed by the government. Due to fixed price of purchase of raw materials and fixed price of sale, the industry is made lucrative and profitable by excellent resource availability, efficient management and optimum supply chain design.

The eminent speaker offered our students a chance to work in different live projects with any of the associated functions with the sugar industry. He asked us to select a function of our choice and focus on data research and finding effective and better solutions to increase profit margins.

The lecture gave us very valuable insight and it was duly attended by our Placement Incharge Prof. Vinay Sharma and students of MBA first as well as second year.