The Hindu Business Line : Sugar trading Web site slips into limbo — Industry shifts focus to starting futures

SUGARTRADE.COM, the country's Web site on sugar industry promoted by the leading sugar companies, is not in operation for quite sometime and is unlikely to restart in the near future.

The Web site belongs to e-commodities Ltd and is promoted by domestic sugar majors such as Balrampur Chini, EID Parry, Bannari Amman, Dhampur Sugar, JK Sugar, Thiru Arooran and DCM Shriram, among others.

The Indian Sugar and General Industry Export Import Corporation Ltd (ISEC), a joint venture between Indian Sugar Mills Association and National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd, held an equity stake of 25 per cent in it.

Industry sources said that sugartrade.com failed because of two reasons. First, there was hardly anyone to run the show despite having the leading sugar companies as its promoters. Secondly, the domestic sugar market was too depressed and the individual companies were mostly busy in managing their own businesses. Moreover, the Government rules and regulations were not flexible enough to allow sugar trading through a Web site.

Mr Srikant Jha, Vice-President of sugartrade.com, had a different version on the fate and future of the portal. First, he clarified that the site was just an industry-specific Web magazine and trading was not carried on it. It used to be done by ecleus.net, a sister Web site belonging to the same company.

The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had given e-commodities the licence to set up a sugar futures exchange. Subsequently, the company tied up with Malaysia Derivatives Exchange Bhd (MDEX) for developing the sugar exchange.

According to Mr Jha, the company is busy in developing this exchange.

"FMC has said that we should have the futures exchange first and then a separate sugar Web site. That's why we have closed the two sites, sugartrade.com and ecleus.net. Once we have an exchange in place, we will restart the sugartrade.com," Mr Jha told Business Line.

But, he was unable to give any date with regard to starting sugar futures. "At this point of time, I am unable to give you any specific date. May be after one month the situation will be clearer," he said.

Long back sugar trading started off successfully on ecleus.net. Sources said that more than three lakh tonnes of sugar was traded on this platform between September-December 2001.

When inquired why trading was stopped on ecleus.net, Mr Jha said: "Last year, the sugar market was too depressed. So there was hardly any trading. Moreover, we were busy in developing the futures exchange."

Sources said that all the key executives have left the company. During the last two-and-a-half years, the CEO changed at least twice. Though the company is registered in Mumbai, no one was available in that office to comment on its activities.

Mr Jha clarified that he is in Delhi to finalise the nitty-gritty of the proposed exchange. He added that all the promoters have continued with their stakes in the company and the directorial board has remained unchanged.

According to him, FMC has approved the rules and regulations of the proposed exchange, which was prepared in consultation with the MDEX. "Training programme are being regularly conducted," he said.

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