National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCSFL) demanded duty-free raw sugar import from the government. India is the second biggest producer of the sweetener in the world. It has earlier allowed mills to import duty free raw sugar in 2005. It had also set a condition of export of refined sugar within 36 months. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had scrapped this facility on April 16 this year

The chairman of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, Jayantilal Patel said that the government should repeat the scheme of 2005 for better capacity utilization of industry. 

The union agriculture minister, Shard Pawar said that India expects good season for sugar and would not face any problems on account of good stock and production. 

The agriculture ministry has estimated original sugar production of 220 lakh tonnes for 2008-09. The annual requirement of sugar for the country is 225 lt and domestic sugar production can serve the purpose for domestic supply. The cooperative mills in Maharashtra have also demanded the import of raw sugar.