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Sugar mills in the country produced 258.68 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar till March 15 — nearly 20 per cent more than 216.13 lt produced in the corresponding period in the previous sugar season — riding mainly on significantly improved performance of mills in Maharashtra, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said on Wednesday.
Of the 502 mills in the country, 331 are still crushing sugarcane while 171 had stopped crushing already. During the previous sugar season, 319 were in operation while 138 mills stopped crushing in the same period.
States take measures to revive 202 sick sugar mills across the country
In Maharashtra, mills till date produced 94 lt of sugar (55.85 lt). Compared to 146 mills operated in 2019-20, 188 mills crushed sugarcane this season. While 48 completed crushing, 140 are still crushing, ISMA said in a statement.
The production of sugar, however, is a tad lower in Uttar Pradesh in the 2020-21 season compared to the previous one. Till March 15, sugar production in the State was 84.25 lt, which is nearly 3 lt lower than the 87.16 lt produced in the same period last season.
Sugar output unlikely to be hit despite 33 mills closing operations
Sugar mills in Karnataka, on the other hand, produced 8 lt more sugar in the current season as compared to the corresponding period last year. The State, where the crushing season is almost over, has produced 41.35 lt of sugar till March 15 compared 33.35 lt produced in the same period last season. Other sugar-producing States put together produced around 39 lt of sugar so far.
Ethaniol & Exports
Of the 296.77 crore litres of ethanol that sugar mills have promised to supply to Oil Marketing Companies, 80.1 crore litres have been supplied till March 8, ISMA said. The total contracted ethanol will be enough for achieving an overall blending percentage of 7 per cent, but some States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra have achieved a blending of 10 per cent already.
As per market reports, against a total export quota of 60 lt, contracts have been signed for around 43 lt of sugar export already. This is a great achievement especially because export quotas were allocated by the government only on December 31 last year, ISMA said.
As per information collected from ports, 3.18 lt of sugar was exported in the October-December quarter, against last season‘s export quota and another around 22 lt of exports are expected between January-March quarter this year.
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