More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025

 

By Afra Abubacker

 

NEW DELHI – The Sugar Commissionerate of Maharashtra has held back from issuing licences to 21 mills to commence sugarcane crushing operations for the 2025-26 (Oct-Sep) season, mainly due to outstanding sugarcane payments for the previous year and non-compliance of other norms, an official said. Of the 213 mills that applied for permission to start crushing sugarcane this season, the commissionerate has issued licences to 192 units, the official said. The remaining applications are "still in process", the official said.

 

Most applications have been withheld for not clearing sugarcane dues to farmers. Sugar mills are mandated to pay government-fixed fair and remunerative prices of sugarcane to farmers within 14 days of purchase. Upon failing to clear the arrears, the commissionerate can take regulatory action, including suspension of crushing licence and issuing revenue recovery certificates against the defaulting mills.

According to the commissionerate's latest data, mills in the state have crushed 85.51 million tonnes of sugarcane in the 2024-25 season. As of Nov. 15, mills have cleared 99.5% of their sugarcane dues and paid INR 314.5 billion to farmers as the fair and remunerative price, including harvesting and transport costs.

 

Some mills have paid sugarcane bills higher than the basic fair and remunerative prices in the 2024-25 season, as they cleared previous years' dues with interest for defaults. For the 2025-26 season, the Centre has raised the fair and remunerative price of sugarcane by INR 15 to INR 355 per kg.

 

As of Nov. 15, 170 mills in Maharashtra have begun crushing sugarcane and produced nearly 900,000 tonnes of sugar. For the entire 2025-26 season, the state is estimated to produce about 12.5 million tonnes of sugar, according to the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories.

 

Citing a rise in sugarcane prices, the Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association has been urging the government to increase the minimum selling price of sugar to INR 40.24 per kg. The minimum selling price of sugar is INR 31 per kg, unchanged since February 2019.

 

Recently, Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the Centre will consider the industry's demand to raise the minimum selling price after studying the impact of exports on sugar prices.

 

The Centre has allowed mills to export 1.5 million tonnes of sugar by September end. Sugar exports help mills liquidate their stock and improve their financial health. In the 2024-25 season, the government allowed exports of 1.0 million tonnes of sugar, of which mills shipped 800,000-900,000 tonnes. "In the 2024-25 (sugar) season, prices were stable after we allowed exports of 10 lakh (1 million) tonnes of sugar," Press Trust of India quoted Joshi as saying on the sidelines of an event. End

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.