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Informist, Monday, Mar. 17, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories has scaled down its sugar output estimate for the season ending September to 25.9 million tonnes. Earlier this month, the federation had estimated sugar output at 26.5 million tonnes, and 27.0 million tonnes in January. Sugar output last year was 31.9 million tonnes. 

 

"The 2024-25 sugar season, right from the beginning was stuck in the midst of constantly changing estimates of sugarcane availability and expected sugar production. The state of ambiguity in sugar production numbers still persists even today," the federation said. 

 

Since early estimates signalled comfortable sugar availability in the country, New Delhi allowed mills to export 1 million tonnes in 2024-25 (Oct-Sep). The industry had urged for exports of 2 million tonnes. "This decision definitely helped in improving the sugar price realisations," the release said. 

 

Sugar production is expected to fall due to a decline in sugarcane yields in major producing states. "Heavy infestation of 'red rot' and 'top shoot borer' on the sugarcane variety Co-0238, which covers the majority of the sugarcane area in Uttar Pradesh, and at the same time, the premature massive flowering of the standing sugarcane in Maharashtra and Karnataka, resulting in stunted growth and adverse effects on sugar yield," the release said. 

 

The sugarcane crushing season in most states will end this month. At the same time, mills in Uttar Pradesh will conclude operations by mid-April, the federation said. Mills are closing operations early due to lower availability of cane and a drop in sugar recovery rate, it added. 

 

As of Saturday, 329 mills across the country were shut for the season, against 176 units a year ago. The average sugar recovery rate fell to 9.32% from 9.95%, according to data from the federation. 

 

"Especially in a major state like Maharashtra, which has 200 operational sugar factories, the crushing season this year has lasted for only 83 days. Any factory can survive only if it runs for at least 140 to 150 days," Harshvardhan Patil, president of the federation, said in the release. "It is very difficult to correlate expenses of 365 days and load it on 83-day season," he added.

 

Of the 200 mills in Maharashtra, 170 had shut as of Saturday. Amid early closure, sugar production in the state fell 21.7% on year to 7.86 million tonnes from 10.04 million tonnes produced in the same period a year ago, federation data showed. The average sugar recovery rate fell to 9.45% from 10.00%.

 

Meanwhile, sugar production across the country fell 16.3% on year to 23.7 million tonnes as of Saturday from 28.3 million tonnes produced in the same period a year ago. Production in Uttar Pradesh fell 8.5% to 8.1 million tonnes, amid a fall in the sugar recovery rate to 9.6% from 10.3% last year. A total of 31 mills in the state were closed, against 180 during the corresponding period last year, the data showed. 

 

As of Saturday, Karnataka produced 3.9 million tonnes of sugar, down 21.2% on year from a year ago. The average sugar recovery rate in the state fell to 8.5% from 9.7% a year ago, the data showed.  End

 

Reported by Afra Abubacker

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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