Total Indian Consumption of sugar has grown at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 3.6% from 14.7 MMT in 1997-1998 to 18.2 MMT in 2003-2004 (Source: ISMA and CRIS-INFAC).

Apart from white sugar, India also consumes alternate sweeteners - gur and khandsari, which are placed at about 9 MMT per annum. Taking into account all the 3 sweeteners i.e. white sugar, gur and khandsari, on a per capita basis, Indian consumption is more than the world average (See the table below). However, white sugar consumption is much lower than the world average.

The consumption of white sugar in India is generally urban based. In rural areas the alternate sweeteners gur and khandsari are consumed in larger quantities. The consumption of sugar in urban areas in some of the Indian states with higher GDP and income levels, matches favourably with various developed countries. The highest per capita consumption of sugar is in the states of Punjab and Haryana which are adjoining the sugar producing region of western UP. As income levels and GDP rises, it can be expected that there will be a gradual shift from consumption of alternate sweeteners to white sugar. Also, as can be seen from the following table, the total per capita consumption of sweeteners in urban India is higher than total India average by around 5 kg per annum. This clearly implies that per capita consumption of sweeteners in rural India is much lower. It can be expected that this gap will close with increase in urbanization leading to a growth in the total sweeteners market in India.

PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR IN URBAN INDIA

(Source: ISMA Website accessed on May 16, 2005)