Sugar prices drop down by nearly 35 percent, says Sharad Pawar

New Delhi, March 4 (ANI): Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that wholesale sugar prices in Maharashtra has dropped by Rupees 1,600 per quintal.

Maharashtra is India's top sugar producer.

Inaugurating an agricultural science fair here, Pawar said: "Today morning only I got an information...for an instance that Maharashtra and UP are the major producing (sugar) states.... So the Maharashtra's rates have come down this year. Today the wholesale price is somewhat near to 3,000 rupees ($65) per quintal. It was earlier near to 4,600 rupees ($100) per quintal. So it has been dropped by 1,600 in last 2-3 months time," Pawar said on Thursday (March 04).

International sugar prices, and of raw sugar in particular, have come down due to a sell-off by funds after having scaled record highs last December.

Brisk Indian demand for sugar has also been a key driver for New York raw sugar, which had risen to the highest in nearly three decades.

Indian mills have bought 300,000 tonnes of sugar in January, taking advantage of a fall in global prices. (ANI)