A sudden rise in the price of sugar in India has left sweet makers in West Bengal anxious just before the festival season. A Reuters report said the price of sugar in India rose by about 20 percent in August alone.

Market rates on 27 August put sugar at 70 rupees a kilogram in several West Bengal districts including Kolkata, Hooghly, and East and West Bardhaman — precisely the districts best known for making sweets.

Shopkeepers' margins have already turned. Shaibal Modak, who runs the Surya Kumar Modak sweet shop, known as the birthplace of the jalbhara sandesh, told BBC Bangla: "I was forced to raise prices only a few days ago because of the gas price. Now the sugar price has gone up, so I am making five percent less profit on each sweet. How many times a year can I raise prices?"

According to several media reports, langcha sellers at Shaktigarh in Bardhaman have already raised their prices, and sellers in Santipur have added about 50 rupees to a kilogram of nikhuti. The festival season begins in September with Janmashtami, Vishwakarma Puja and Ganesh Chaturthi, leading to Durga Puja in October, when many shops earn the bulk of their income.

Many on social media blame ethanol for the price rise. Ethanol is made from sugarcane and is currently being blended into fuel in India. The claim is that ethanol production is eating into the supply of an everyday commodity like sugar.

Consumer anger points at the same policy. A resident of Bhadreswar in Hooghly district, who drives 30 kilometres to his office in Salt Lake, Kolkata, said that although ethanol blending has begun, the wholesale price of fuel has not come down while his car's mileage has fallen — and now sugar has become dearer too.

The state government has promised to act. On 24 August, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced appropriate measures to rein in sugar prices at a press conference at the state secretariat, Nabanna, but three days later market rates had barely moved. The increase follows a rise in commercial cooking gas prices amid the Iran-United States conflict, a second blow to the trade in months.

Source: BBC Bangla