Export competitiveness of sugar in India

International sugar trade is of strategic importance as it helps to maintain stability in the domestic sugar prices, despite its cyclicality in production. During present investigation, export competitiveness of Indian sugar has been comprehensively analyzed by employing secondary data. Time series data on area, production and productivity of sugarcane, and production and consumption of sugar was collected for the period 1990–2015. The data obtained during over all period (1990–01 to 2014–15) were divided into two periods i.e. period-I (1990–01 to 1999–00), period-II (2000–01 to 2014–15). It was revealed that, the growth in area and production of sugarcane was (1.51% and 1.55% respectively during Periods I and II), however, there was no improvement in productivity. Similarly, production and consumption of sugar in India registered 3.57% and 3.16% growth respectively during the two periods. The estimated Nominal Protection Coefficients (NPCs) indicated higher domestic sugar prices, as compared to the international prices, and hence, it has been suggested that there is an urgent need of changing policy regarding the status of Indian sugar, which experienced massive export advantages in past. However, as the NPC was more than unity, it was concluded that there was lack of export competitiveness for Indian sugar.