06 May 2022, New Delhi: Sugar mills across the country have produced 342.37 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar between October 1, 2021, and April 30, 2022. This is about 42 lt or 14 per cent higher than 300.29 lt produced during the same period last season (October 2020-September 2021).
The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has estimated that during the current season, the industry should be able to export over 90 lt of sugar.
In a statement, ISMA said compared with 106 sugar mills that were crushing sugarcane in April 2021, about 217 crushed the cane in April this year. In Maharashtra, sugar production till April 30, 2022, was 132.06 lt against 105.63 lt produced a year ago, almost 26.4 lt higher than last year.
In the current sugar season, 76 mills have closed their crushing operations in the State and 123 are still operating compared with the 23 mills that operated last year during the year-ago period.
“The mills are currently facing the problem in harvesting and transportation of harvestable cane still available in the State. Accordingly, the State government has announced assistance to enable mills to continue crushing till cane lasts,” ISMA stated in a press release.
Uttar Pradesh sugar mills have produced 98.98 lt of sugar as of April 30, 2022 — which is 6.64 lt lower than the output of 105.62 lt achieved by them last year on the corresponding date. Of the 120 mills operated this year, 78 have ended their crushing and 42 mills continue to operate against 45 mills that were operating on April 30, 2021.
Of the 72 mills operating in Karnataka, 70 have already closed their crushing operations for the main season, while two are in operation. The State has produced 59.02 lt of sugar. However, a few closed mills might operate in the special season commencing June-July. During the corresponding period last year, all the 66 sugar mills had closed their operations and produced 42.48 lt of sugar.
Higher estimation
As per reports from sugar mills and estimations made by ISMA, sugar sales by the end of March 2022 have been estimated at 136.14 lt (129.48 lt). Further, the domestic sugar sales quota released by the government up to May is also higher by 6.5 lt. ISMA expects domestic consumption in the current season to be at 272 lt (265.5 lt). As per reports from the trade, around 82-83 lt of sugar have been contracted for exports so far. Of this, nearly 68 -70 lt are estimated to have been physically exported till April-end compared with 43.19 lt a year ago.
Ethanol production
On the ethanol front, against the total LOI quantity of 425.17 crore litres, 410.32 crore litres have been contracted for and 168.66 crore litres of ethanol have been supplied as on April 24. Of the total supply so far, about 149.16 crore litres i.e., over 88 per cent have been supplied by the sugar industry. The country, on an average, has achieved a blending percentage of 9.82 per cent on the corresponding date, ISMA said.
