CII Seminar Deliberates On Challenges Faced in Exports of Sugar Machinery.

Sugar machinery industry is reflective of the Indian manufacturing panorama with huge opportunities in exports to regions such as Latin America and Africa, adopting energy-efficient means of production and a growing domestic demand.

This was stated by K B Pranesh, chairman, sugar machinery division and managing director, Fives Cail-KCP Ltd, while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) national seminar on Sugar Machinery Industry, in New Delhi, on Thursday.

Pranesh outlined various challenges currently faced by the sugar machinery manufacturers which included absence of credit lines and financing for exports to the required extent, hampering exports, especially to countries in Africa, which have huge demand.

The various support facilities provided by the government to encourage exports, were discussed by Arvind Mehta, joint secretary, department of commerce, ministry of commerce and industry, as he informed that the government was considering the request from the sugar industry for deregulation to bring the industry at a level playing field with the other industries.

He further mentioned that the government would prefer a “feather-touch” approach - an export tariff model instead of one banning exports, similar to the one present for export of iron ore.

Mehta outlined the various schemes of the government to boost international trade such as the Market Access Initiative Scheme, Reverse Buyer Seller Meets, and Credit Insurance to Banks under the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) that will encourage the banks to leverage credit to the industry.

Rajshree Pathy, vice-chairperson, CII national committee on sugar, and chairman & MD, Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals, said that huge opportunity lay with the machinery manufacturers.

She stated that in the wake of shortage of availability of labour, there was a growing demand for low-cost cane harvesters. Currently the domestic industry for cane harvesters is in the nascent stage and huge prospects lie for the machinery manufacturers to capture this segment.

“The main mantra of success for the industry today lies in innovation, automation, mechanisation and product diversification,” stressed Dr G S C Rao, president, Sugar Technologist Association of India, and CEO, Simbhaoli Sugars Limited.

He stated that with an estimated increase in domestic production capacity of sugar to 34 million tonnes, the sugar machinery manufacturers have an optimistic future ahead. Advocating the growing demand in sugar globally, he stressed on the need for product diversification and production of raw, refined and organic sugar by using energy-efficient machinery in order to capture global markets. Sugar export is one big focus area for this industry to grow at a sustained rate. With growing demand for Indian sugar abroad, this opportunity would augur well for both sugar manufacturers and sugar machinery manufacturers.

Sanjay Awasthi, business head, sugar, ISGEC (Indian Sugar and General Engineering Corporation), called for concerted efforts between the government and the industry for understanding growth enablers and creating value-addition for the industry. The CII through its National Committee on Sugar is also advocating decontrol and deregularisation of the industry. The sugar machinery industry with voluminous potential in technology development, need for low-cost equipment, increasing credit leveraging by financial institutions and continuous government support, is expected to grow at a robust rate.

Source : fnbnews.com