Diversified agro-based firm Baramati Agro plans to promote cultivation of beet for sugar production, its CEO Rohit Pawar has said.
Pawar, who recently took over as the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) President, said his firm, which owns two sugar mills, plans to start trials from this year.
While the Chandigarh-based Rana Sugar has been producing some limited quantities since 2012, Renuka Sugar, headquartered in Mumbai, tried out beet on a limited scale in the past.
Requires less water
“Both farmers and sugar mills will benefit from cultivating beet for sugar production. As beet is a short-duration crop, the requirement of water goes down, helping farmers. Beet, on other hand, can help sugar mills’ capacity utilisation,” Pawar said.
“This is particularly useful for sugar mills in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where capacity utilisation is low and overheads are high as they have a small season. After crushing sugarcane, the mills here can go for beet, improving their capacity utilisation,” he said.
The mills that want to use beet as feedstock with sugarcane may only need an additional diffuser, which costs only ₹20-25 crore, with the rest of the equipment required being the same, he said.
“We plan to go aggressive on this. Once we generate adequate data, we plan to share it with other mills,” Pawar said.