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About 470 sugar mills in operation had produced 79.85 lakh tonnes of sugar till December 31, 2015, 6.5 per cent higher than last season’s production, the Indian Sugar Mills Assocation (ISMA) said here on Monday.
In 2014-15 sugar season, 490 sugar mills had produced 74.95 lakh tonnes till December 31.
So far, the mills have contracted for export of around 8 lakh tonnes of sugar and have physically despatched around 3 lakh tonnes, ISMA said, adding that since there was no parity on export of raw sugar due to high cost of cane in India and depressed global prices, Indian mills produced “almost negligible quantum of raw sugar” and are mainly exporting white sugar.
In Maharashtra, 169 sugar mills are in operation and had produced 33.75 lakh tonnes till December, 31, 2015, against 172 sugar mills producing 32.64 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. From the beginning of this season till December 31, the average sugar recovery in the State stands at 10.36 per cent against 10.44 per cent last year.
The 113 mills in Uttar Pradesh had crushed 183.21 lakh tonnes of cane and produced 18.32 lakh tonnes, with an average recovery of 10 per cent. In 2014-15, 118 sugar mills in UP had crushed around 186 lakh tonnes to produce 16.95 lakh tonnes of sugar with an average recovery of 9.2 per cent.
In Karnataka, 62 sugar mills in operation had produced 15.50 lakh tonnes against 12.43 lakh tonnes produced by 63 sugar mills in 2014-15 sugar season till December 31, 2014.
In Gujarat, 19 mills had produced 4.40 lakh tonnes of the sweetener against 18 mills producing 3.88 lakh tonnes in 2014-15.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 25 sugar mills had produced 2.15 lakh tonnes, 0.41 lakh tonne less than the sugar produced by 29 mills in 2014-15, while in Tamil Nadu, 15 mills are in operation, compared with 19 mills last year, but the production is almost similar at 0.80 lakh tonnes, the sugar producer’s body said.
Sugar production in Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh is almost at the same level as last year, with the Bihar mills producing 1.40 lakh tonnes, Haryana 1 lakh tonne, Punjab 0.95 lakh tonne, Uttarakhand 0.70 lakh tonne and Madhya Pradesh 0.75 lakh tonne.
ISMA said while domestic ex-mill prices had improved in the past fortnight by Rs 1-to 2 a kilo, the all-India average for the three months (October to November 2015), stood at around Rs 27-28/kilo, which is still Rs 4-5/kilo lower than the all-India average cost of production.
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