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Commodity |
| GUR |
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| Description | Overview |
Production | Grading
rules| Major trading centers | Contract
specifications |
| Description |
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Gur is a coarse, unrefined sugar made by
evaporating the syrup or juice of certain kinds of palm trees but
specifically, from the syrup of palmyra (borassus flabelliformis).
It is a traditional whole sugar, which is not refined, but it is
still pure and wholesome. Gur and khandisari are traditional
Indian sweeteners and they are produced in addition to sugar. It
can also be defined as a honey brown colored raw lump of sugar. It
is sugar and molasses’s natural mixture. The best type of gur is
not brick hard, but it is easily breakable and looks clean. It is
popular throughout southeast and southern Asia and it is available
generally in the form of cakes. It contains all the minerals and
vitamins present in sugarcane juice and that is why it is known as
the healthiest sugar in the world. In south America, gur is known
by the name of panela.
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Overview |
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Sugar cultivation is done on around 4
million hectares of land in India. It mainly consists of the
production of sugarcane that has fluctuated between 230-300
million tons in recent years. It can be considered a fair rate of
production as the sugarcane requirement in 2020 is estimated to be
415 million tons.
As compared to a sugar plant, the capital requirement for making
gur is very less. Gur or jaggery are produced by the
concentration of sugarcane juice and does not require any type of
chemicals or additives or preservatives. That’s why it is also
called a “natural” sweetener. It has got an enormous value as
a medicine and a nutritional product. Gur contains a large amount
of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Moreover, its use is also
prescribed in the ayurvedic system of medicine as a medicinal
sugar as it purifies the blood and prevents disorders of bile.
These qualities are not present in sugar. Production of sugar
requires a mix up of chemicals like sulphur dioxide, lime,
phosphoric acid, formic acid and bleaching agents. Even the
scientists have now proved that all the essential vitamins and
minerals are missing from sugar as compared to gur and jaggery.
But still, gur or jaggery is not produced on a commercial
scale globally. Sugar is the most prominent sweetener that is
used worldwide. The sugar industry dominates the consumption of
the sugarcane produced in the country as compared to gur industry.
In other words, sugar has been produced on a large scale not only
in India but whole across the world. Currently around one-third of
India's sweetener production of 26 million tons is in the form of
these products. While, the production of sugar has fluctuated
between 17-21 million tons. India's sugar consumption in 2003-04
is estimated to be 18.5 million tons.
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Production
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As
discussed above, production of gur is cheap and
simple as compared to sugar production.
Production of sugar is very expensive and
complicated as it depends on heavily
centralized, giant sugar plant including a
complicated system of machinery. On the other
hand, gur can be produced on the sugarcane farm
only, on a very small scale and unlike sugar, no
complicated machinery is needed. It can be
produced, just by boiling the pure clarified
sugarcane juice. There is only 5% or even less
capital requirement for making gur compared to
sugar production. That is why it is within the
reach of common sugarcane farmers also.
Gur production is
directly proportional to the production of
sugarcane. India can increase its gur production
by increasing its sugarcane production. The
following are the figures depicting yield in
tons per hectare in the sugarcane producing
states in India
| State |
Production
(tons/hectare) |
| Tamil Nadu |
106 |
| Kerala |
93 |
| Karnataka |
91 |
| Andhra Pradesh |
72 |
| Gujarat |
72 |
| West Bengal |
70 |
| Uttar Pradesh |
65 |
| Orissa |
61 |
| Punjab |
56 |
| Haryana |
53 |
| Bihar |
41 |
| Maharashtra |
33 |
Now India must adopt a
policy of increasing the production of gur. The
only way to increase its production is to
increase the rate of production of sugarcane.
There are researches and developments, which are
going on in the field improving yield levels of
sugarcane. There is more scope in this regard in
the north than in the south as production in
south India is already much higher than north
India.
And for the
highest possible gur recovery, varieties of gur
have to be bred.
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| Grading
rules for gur |
Grading
is done for gur and jaggery, which is produced in
India. Certain rules have been made under grading and
marking rules, 1943 that relate to grading of gur and
jaggery. These rules are applied to gur that is
prepared in form of solid lumps. The following are the
general characteristics of gur under these rules: -
The
gur
(a)
Shall be prepared exclusively from the
clarified juice of sugarcane;
(b)
Shall be prepared in the form of shaped solid
lumps (Bheli, Chakki, Luddoos, etc.) which shall be of
firm consistency - not sticky or plastic;
(c) Shall be reasonably free from extraneous matter
such as bagasse, dirt & other impurities, the
combined total of which shall be less than 1 percent
by weight.
(d) shall be dried to such an extent as reasonably
to maintain its color, consistency and weight;
(e) Shall bear no signs of superficial sweet or
mould; and
(f)
Shall be sweet to the taste and not possess a
sour, salty or other objectionable flavor
Also, gur
has been designated under four categories under these
rules. These designations relate to the quality of the
gur. Different designations and their special
characteristics are shown in the table below: -
| Grade Designation |
Special
Characteristics
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| Color (not darker than) |
Texture |
| Extra special |
Cream or light |
Granular (Rawedar or Danedar) |
| Special |
Golden |
(same as above) |
| A I |
Dark golden |
Either granular (Rawe dar or
Denedar) smooth (Chikna) |
| A II |
Light brown |
(same as above) |
| B |
Brown |
(same as above) |
The
different grades must be marked with a label of AGMARK
with different colors pertaining to different grade
designation: -
Extra
Special
- White
Special
- Red
A
I
- Blue
A
II
- Yellow
B
- Green
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| Major
trading centers of gur and sugar in India |
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Major
trading centers of gur and sugar in India are
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Muzzafarnagar
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Mumbai
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Delhi
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Bhatinda
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Ludhiana
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Meerut
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Kolkata
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Hapur
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Gwaliar
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Hyderabad
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Chennai
Gur is traded in the
following commodity markets: -
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Bhatinda Om & Oil
Exchange Ltd., Bhatinda
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The
Meerut Agro Commodities Exchange Co. Ltd., Meerut
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Vijay Beopar Chamber Ltd.,
Muzaffarnagar
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Rajdhani Oils and Oilseeds
Exchange Ltd., Delhi
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The Chamber Of Commerce,
Hapur
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The Central India
Commercial Exchange Ltd., Gwaliar
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National Multi Commodity
Exchange of India Limited.
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Multi Commodity Exchange of
India Ltd.
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National Commodity &
Derivatives Exchange Ltd.
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Future
contract specifications of gur in various commodity
exchanges
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