Indian coop sugar mills beg for right to use sugar as ethanol feedstock

In India, the Hindu Business Line newspaper reports that with 48 million metric tons of sugar supplies on hand between current stocks and record production next year, the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories is asking the government for permission to use extensive volumes of sugar as feedstock for ethanol production. The association hasn’t put a specific number to its request for diversion of sugar, but it did ask for 7 million tons of exports, of which the government agreed to 6 million tons.