Uttar Pradesh bans imports of raw sugar - officials

LUCKNOW (Reuters) - India's biggest sugarcane producing state has banned imports of raw sugar after a farmers demonstration against overseas purchases of raws, government officials said on Tuesday.

India, the world's biggest consumer and the second-biggest producer of sugar, has allowed imports of both raws and whites at zero duty to stave off shortages.

Agitating farmers in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which produces half of India's cane, say importing raw sugar curtails the bargaining power they have when trying to persuade mills to buy Indian cane at a higher price.

"For the time being no raw sugar would be offloaded in the state to maintain law and order in the state," said a state government official, who did not wish to be named.

On Sunday, farmers in the state set fire to part of a goods train carrying raw sugar imports from Brazil. Threatening to stop selling cane to mills, farmers in the state have demanded higher prices for their produce.

Mills buy cane from farmers at a rate fixed by the state government.

The state government raised the mandatory cane price by about 17-18 percent to 165 ($3.53)-170 rupees ($3.63) per 100 kg for different varieties but millers said the rise was too steep, while farmers said they deserved more as sugar prices had doubled in a year.

"There is no imported sugar coming to the state. If there is any, it would not be unloaded," said Sudhir M Bobde, cane commissioner of Uttar Pradesh.

(Reporting by Alka Pande; editing by James Jukwey)