Notícias

Sugar is what makes our life sweeter

31 de Julho de 2020

Notícias

A Conferência e Exposição Internacional sobre Indústria de Açúcar e Etanol, que será transmitida ao vivo nos dias 30/ 31 de outubro e 1 de novembro de 2020, em Goa na Índia, tem divulgado entrevistas interessantes sobre o setor e seus produtos. Abaixo, uma entrevista  do Presidente e Diretor Executivo da Godavari Biorefinarias Ltda, Samir Somaiya.

1. What is your view on the sustainability of the sugar sector, going forward.

Sustainability has to be viewed from the perspective of the market, the miller, and the farmer. I think that the sugar sector has to be looked at from a different lens. It is the cane processing sector. The sugar industry has much more to it than sugar, though sugar is an important product.

Sugar is what makes our life sweeter. Sugar is an important ingredient in all our festivals. It goes hand in hand with our celebrations. Life would not be the same without it. Moreover, sugar is what makes our brain ’tick’.

The Government of India has made important policy changes in the past few years especially with respect to the revitalization of the ethanol blending program. This has created a large market for the use of sugarcane and is only likely to increase as India looks to its own energy security. This encouragement of the use of a surplus cane to directly make ethanol will provide much-needed optionality to the millers to swing between the making of sugar and ethanol based on the demand and supply gap in these two sectors.

Ethanol blended fuel is a cleaner fuel, and also reduces the carbon footprint. In times of climate change, we need to implement and encourage more sustainable sources of transportation fuel. Similarly, sugarcane bagasse is also used to make electricity. This electricity also mitigates carbon emissions, and is a cleaner source of electricity than conventional fossil feedstocks.

Sugarcane can also be used as a source to make chemicals that are used in coatings, pharmaceuticals, fragrances, chemicals, biomaterials, and biopolymers. Our company, Godavari Biorefineries, has a track record in producing a multitude of chemicals using sugarcane that is used in India and overseas.

Sustainability at the farmer level needs to look at the manner of farming, and the economics for the farmer. Farming practices need to look at the use of water and also ways in which the soil is healthier from season to season. Practices such as drip irrigation need to be used to reduce the water footprint. Inter-cropping with soya can reduce fertilizer input and increase farmer income.

Going forward, the policies will have to move towards a rational pricing of cane that is based on a revenue-sharing formula as previously suggested by the Rangarajan Committee.

In this fashion, the sugarcane processing sector can provide meaningful livelihoods to small and large farmers, provide the energy to make our brains work, help light up our homes, provide us a means for transportation, a cleaner air, a lower carbon footprint, a feedstock of chemicals and biomaterials, and finally, an ingredient that helps us celebrate life.

2. What is the role of the Indian sugar industry in the global markets?

India now produces a surplus of sugarcane. This production base is now diversified in different parts of the country so that climate shocks in some parts of the country have not created a deficit in sugar availability. The Government’s policies for encouraging ethanol are a step to use this surplus of sugarcane.

Meanwhile, India has become a structure exporter of sugar over the past few years. It is just as well that it happened as Asia, the Middle East and Africa have been the primary destinations of sugar exported from the western hemisphere. Being an economy with a strong agricultural base, we are best suited to meet the demand in this region. India has also utilized its geographical advantage in establishing world-class sugar refineries at the ports primarily for tolling operations as well as in the cane-based sugar complexes.

India now accounts for over 10% of global trade in sugar.

Our farm productivity and industrial efficiency in this sector are second to none.

3. What is your take in changes in consumer preferences.

I have mentioned earlier, that sugar is an inseparable part and parcel of our culture. It goes hand in hand with our celebrations, festivals and daily food. Also, recently, there has been a large increase in consumer preferences for pre-packed, quality foods.

Recently health concerns have been raised with respect to an increase in calorie intake and reduction in exercise. Currently, the argument seems to focus on sugar, but I think this is a larger argument on lifestyle. We have to keep our minds, brain, and body healthy. For this, we need to enjoy the food we eat, keep our brain ‘ticking’ and exercise sufficiently to keep healthy. Our brand ‘Jivana’ connotes life. I think that consumer preferences are moving towards better lifestyles, and this can mean more sustainable farming, a cleaner and greener future, and a personal lifestyle of healthy ‘soulful’ eating, exercise and mindfulness. Sugar will always be a sweet part of our lives.

 

 

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