Quick-commerce platforms and offline retailers have capped purchases of some sugar products as festive-season demand rises and supplies remain tight, with consumers facing restrictions on the quantity they can buy.
Popular platforms Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart have placed quantity limits on some sugar products, restricting the number of packs a customer can add to an order. The restrictions vary across products and platforms.
On Zepto, some sugar products carry limits on the number of packs that can be purchased, while the app also flags limited availability for certain products.
Blinkit similarly shows purchase limits on some sugar packs, with no purchases allowed beyond 2 kg.
On Swiggy Instamart, a listing for Supreme Harvest Crystal Sugar showed a cap of two 1-kg packs per order.
Large offline retail chains, including DMart and Reliance, have also capped sugar purchases at around 2-3 kg per customer in some stores, reports said.
The purchase restrictions have also spilled over into physical retail, meaning consumers are facing limits on both sides of the retail market — whether they order sugar online for quick delivery or head to a supermarket.
The festive season typically brings a sharp increase in demand for sugar as households prepare sweets and traditional foods, while sweet shops, bakeries and other food businesses also increase procurement.
The squeeze in supplies has pushed sugar prices higher in recent weeks. According to data from the Department of Consumer Affairs, the all-India average retail price of sugar stood at Rs 65.05 per kg on August 26, compared with around Rs 48 per kg a month earlier.
The rise in sugar prices has prompted the government to step in with measures aimed at improving supplies and preventing hoarding.
The government has revised the rules for duty-free imports of raw sugar, giving importers more time to process the imported raw sugar into refined sugar and sell it in the domestic market.
Under the August 20 notification, the government allowed 1 million tonnes of raw sugar to be imported duty-free under a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) until October 31, 2026.
Importers were required to convert the raw sugar into white or refined sugar and sell it in India by October 31.
