In a major boost to the Rs. 80,000 crore Indian Sugar Industry, the Indian Sugar Exim Corporation Ltd. (ISEC) and NCDEX e Markets Ltd. (NeML) announced the launch of the Indian Sugar eMarket (ISeM) – India’s first e-Marketplace for Sugar and allied products.
The launch announcement was made yesterday, 23rd February, at Hotel Claridges in New Delhi by Shri Ravi Kant – the Hon. Secretary for Food & Public Distribution, Consumer Affairs Ministry in presence of Mr. Adhir Jha – MD & CEO, ISEC and Mr. Rajesh Sinha – MD & CEO, NeML.
With an annual production of 25 million tonnes in 2017-18, India is the 2nd largest producer of Sugar in the word and impacts rural livelihood of approximately 50 million sugarcane farmers and 5 lakh workers directly employed in the Sugar Mills.
The launch of a dedicated e-Marketplace for Sugar was thus hailed as a major milestone and within minutes of the announcement, 10 tonnes of Sugar were purchased from Bulandshahr-based Anamika Sugar Mills through the ISeM platform.
Apart from bringing in operational efficiencies and ease in settlement of post trade formalities, the ISeM platform is expected to reduce the number of intermediaries between the Sugar Mills and the End Consumers. The platform will provide trade options on continued market basis as well as forward and reverse options as per the requirements of the Sugar buyers and sellers.
With it’s transparent, real-time price discovery mechanism, ISeM will not only benefit the Sugar producers, but also Bulk Consumers and Sugar Processors. Already 300 members, including Kendriya Bhandar and Patanjali, are registered on the ISeM platform and with over 540 operational Sugar Mills in the country, the trade volume is expected to pick up in the coming days as more and more mills use the ISeM platform.