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Due to decline in sugarcane acreage in Maharashtra, mills in the State are likely to shut operations in February, a good two months before they are normally scheduled to do so. Compared to the previous year, there would be 35 per cent less crushing of sugarcane.
Erratic monsoon and water scarcity has led to significant decline in sugarcane acreage. Usually sugar mills (private and cooperative) operate till end of April but this year due to less sugarcane, they will finish their operations two months in advance.
Drought in some districts of the State also has led to large-scale diversion of sugarcane as cattle feed, which has also resulted in lesser sugarcane for the mills. Farmers in some districts made a quick buck by selling almost 30 per cent of their standing crop to the cattle feed contractors.
Maharashtra’s Cooperation Secretary Rajgopal Deora told Business Line that 103 cooperative and 56 private mills are currently operating in the State. By February, these mills are expected to crush about 545 lakh tonnes of sugarcane, while last year about 820 lakh tonnes was crushed, he said.
Recovery rate
As on date, about 257 lakh tonnes of sugarcane has been crushed and about 2.6 million tonnes of sugar has been produced. Due to lower availability of sugarcane, the mills were advised to start their operations by November, instead of October. This one month delay has led to increase in sugar recovery rate. By the end of February, the recovery rate is expected to go up by 0.5 per cent, Deora said.
Sugar recovery rate is the percentage of sugar recovered from processing 1 tonne (1,000 kg) of sugarcane. In Maharashtra, the recovery is about 11.5 per cent. Every one per cent increase in the recovery rate, results in Rs 70 additional revenue per tonne for the sugar factory.
An official of a leading cooperative sugar mill in Maharashtra said that early processing of sugarcane also means an opportunity for the mills to utilise idle capacity to process imported raw sugar and earn extra money for the mill.
However, the decision to import raw sugar will depend on market conditions and risk appetite of each mill, the official said.
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