In India, percentage use of sugarcane utilised for the purposes of production of white sugar varies between 45 and 55 per cent. 35 to 45 per cent will be utilised in the production of gur and khandsari. Remaining is utilised for seed, feed and chewing purposes. Though the trends indicate a progressive shift from traditional sweeteners to white sugar over the years, they still account for about 37 per cent of total sweetener consumption in India.

Gur and khandsari are the major agro-processing industries in the rural sector. Annually about eight million tons of gur, which is considered the most nutritious agent among all the sweeteners is produced from nearly 50 per cent of the total sugarcane produced in the country.

Gur and khandsari are used mostly in villages and by rural folk. Gur is unrefined sugar and khandsari is non-centrifuged sugar. Both are not only important sweeteners, but also important sources of nutrition as they provide vitamins, iron, calcium and carbohydrates.

A major complaint of the sugar industry has been that large amounts of sugarcane have been diverted to the gur and khandsari units. Gur and khandsari influence the sugar economy of the country to a great extent. In the year of higher sugar output, sugar mill owners will not be able to fetch higher profit margins.

Mill owners usually default to clear the payment due to the farmers. As such, farmers would divert the cane output for the production of gur and khandsari in the next year rather than supplying to sugar mills. Though sugar, gur and khandsari are all seasonally produced, it is only sugar that is consumed throughout the year.

Price trend: On observation of price trend of sugar, gur and khandsari, the seasonal price pattern can be traced. The price trends of all these are basically driven by supply and demand factors coupled with the influence of micro and macro environmental factors. Sugar prices usually experience an increasing trend from Oct/Nov to April/May and decreasing trend from May/June to Oct/Nov. Oct to April period involves the festival and summer season in India.

The consumption of sugar is less in rainy season, which is evident from declining price trend. Usually, the price trend of khandsari would be steady to low during the period from Oct/Nov to April/May. It would firm up steadily from May to Oct. Khandsari being seasonal output, its supply would be high during its production period (Oct-April) thereby we see decline in prices. On paucity of supplies during May to Oct, prices would stabilise. Gur prices move in tandem with khandsari prices and the seasonal price pattern is similar to that of khandsari. However, the fluctuation in gur prices is huge unlike khandsari.

Methodology: In order to assess the price relation between sugar and the other two traditional sweeteners-gur and khandsari, mnth end wholesale price trend of Sugar (S-30 quality), Gur (Dhia Superior) and Khandsari (Sulphur) starting from October-1993 to till date was taken. Inference: The price trend of all the sweeteners- Sugar, Gur and Khandsari is seasonal. Though there is similarity in the price trend of all these sweeteners, the divergence at times can also be noted. However, the similarity in the price trends of sugar and khandsari is higher as compared with other combinations. Gur being the most preferred substitute for sugar, the price trend of gur would be different from that of sugar and khandsari. Though the consumption preference for sugar is higher, on the influence of supply and demand factors and price differences between gur and sugar, gur prices is more vulnerable to fluctuation.

(Source: www.CommodityIndia.com)