The Maharashtra government on Monday announced that sugar mills in the State will start the 2022-23 sugarcane crushing season from October 15. According to the State government estimate, some 203 mills will start crushing and produce 13.8 million tonnes (mt) of sugar by the end of the season. Last season mills produced 13.74 mt of sugar to surpass Uttar Pradesh as the largest sugar producing State.  

The Cabinet committee under Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday announced that the sugarcane crushing season will commence on October 15. Shinde lauded farmers and millers for making Maharashtra the third largest sugar producer in the world.  

As per the press statement issued by Shinde’s office about 14.87 lakh hectares of land have been brought under sugarcane this season and an average 95 tonne per hectare of sugar production is expected, resulting in 13.8 mt production in the 2022-23 season. 

Last sugar season, about 200 mills crushed sugarcane and farmers received FRP of ₹42,650 crore, which was 98 per cent of the total payable FRP. This season average of 160 days of crushing is expected and an FRP of ₹3,050 per tonne will be paid for a basic extraction of 10.25 per cent sugar. 

As of now, 6 mt of sugar stocks are available in the country, out of which 3 mt is in Maharashtra. In the coming season, about 10 mt of sugar is expected to be exported from India and Maharashtra’s share would be of 6 mt.   

According to the State government, Maharashtra has a 35 per cent share in India’s ethanol production. The meeting under Chief Minister Shinde also decided to request the union government to maintain the open general licence policy.  

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