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India’s sugar production fell 21 per cent to 85.5 lakh tonnes till January 15 of the current marketing year that started in October on account of delay in crushing operations.
The output stood at 108 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. Marketing year runs from October to September.
“Sugar production in the country is in full swing. Till 15th January 2014, the country has produced 85.50 lakh tonnes of sugar with 484 mills under crushing operations,” Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement.
ISMA noted that the production is catching up, evident from the fact that the drop in sugarcane production has narrowed to 21 per cent from 29 per cent a fortnight ago.
Sugar production is lagging behind as sugarcane crushing operations started late in Uttar Pradesh because of a stand-off between industry and the State Government on cane pricing.
State-wise production
Production in Maharashtra has declined to 31 lakh tonnes till January 15 of 2013-14 marketing year compared with 37.7 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. Production in Uttar Pradesh has dipped by 28 per cent to 19.8 lakh tonnes.
“Across UP, yields are reported on the lower side compared to last year, but this could be compensated with higher reported sugar recoveries, which is about 0.04 per cent more than last year,” ISMA said.
Production in Karnataka has fallen to 16 lakh tonnes from about 20 lakh tonnes, while the output in Andhra Pradesh fell to 3.85 lakh tonnes from 4.6 lakh tonnes.
Tamil Nadu has produced about 2.8 lakh tonnes of sugar during October 1-January 15 period against 4.9 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.
“Till 31st December, 2013, sugar mills have produced 5.5 lakh tonnes of raw sugar. Export of both white and raw of about 5.3 lakh tonnes has happened from October 2013 till December 2013,” the association said.
This month, the association would review the initial production estimates of 250 lakh tonnes for 2013-14 marketing year.
India, the world’s second largest producer and biggest consumer, had produced 251 lakh tonnes of sugar in 2012-13. The annual domestic consumption stands at around 230 lakh tonnes.
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