Farmers’ body, Opposition seek immediate rollback of sugar export ban

All India Kisan Sabha on Thursday (May 15, 2026) hit out at the government for its decision to ban sugar export, calling for an immediate rollback of the decision. Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) called the sugar export ban a ‘hasty’ and ‘ill-prepared’ decision.

“Government’s sudden sugar export ban is a double whammy for Maharashtra’s sugar mills. Excess stock + Increased FRP [Fair and Remunerative Price] + No exports = Financial disaster. We need foreign exchange, yet we’re locking away our surplus?” asked NCP SP leader Jayant Patil. He also wrote a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the onion issue after plummeting onion prices have led to farmers’ distress.

He demanded that the government should give a Minimum Support Price of ₹2000 per quintal to the onion farmers, apart from ₹1500 in subsidy. He also sought that the government should start buying onions through NAFED or the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd, which is the country’s apex organisation for agricultural marketing cooperatives.

Recently, farmers in Nashik staged a protest and threw away hundreds of kilograms of onions as a mark of protest against the plummeting onion prices. they said that the current rates do not cover even the production and transportation cost.

Sugar export ban

The All India Kisan Sabha said that the government’s decision to ban sugar import is slated to have an adverse impact on the sugar industry in Maharashtra and across the country. “It will push sugarcane farmers into even more trouble. The sugar industry is already in trouble as the minimum selling price of sugar has not been increased despite demands for it for many years. Due to the increasing processing costs and not getting a fair price for sugar, a situation has arisen where farmers cannot even pay the FRP money to many factories. Against this backdrop, there was a need to encourage sugar exports by increasing the minimum selling price of sugar. Instead, the Central Government has announced a complete ban on sugar exports, replacing the word controlled with the word prohibited,” a statement issued by Ashok Dhawale, Ajit Navale and other leaders of AIKS stated.

It said that at a time when many countries had moved from sugar to ethanol production, sugar export would have given an advantageous position to India due to sugar export. “There was a need to take advantage of this opportunity and revive the sugar industry in India and Maharashtra. On the contrary, the government has further tightened the shackles on the feet of farmers by imposing export ban,” AIKS said.

India has banned the export of sugar till September 30 this year with immediate effect, a move which would help enhance domestic availability and contain prices. Earlier the exports were under a restricted category, under which a license was required for the outbound shipments.