Image Credits: Dunlop Conveyor Belting
Friday, 09 March, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
Our Bureau, New Delhi
Considering the substantially higher sugarcane yields per hectare reported from Maharashtra and North Karnataka, members of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) agreed that there was a need to review the second advance estimates of sugar production made in January 2018.
The yields recorded in the two states were reportedly among the highest ever noticed from either of them.
In the last year, when the sugar production fell to 203 lakh tonne for the whole country and 42 lakh tonne in Maharashtra and 21.6 lakh tonne in Karnataka due to the drought in the two states, the yields from both these states was about 60 tonne per hectare (ha). However, the average yields in the current season from these two states was reported to be around 100 tonne per ha and 91 tonne per ha, respectively.
The sugar production upto the end of February 2018 was 230.5 lakh tonne. Considering that 479 sugar mills are still crushing and also taking into the account higher yields reported from above two states, ISMA has revised its estimates for the current season to 295 lakh tonne of sugar.
Out of this, Uttar Pradesh is expected to produce 105.13 lakh tonne, Maharashtra to produce 101.3 lakh tonne and Karnataka 35.45 lakh tonne, which the rest of the sugar production is expected to come from the other states.
Accordingly, sugar production of 295 lakh tonne in the current season will be 45 lakh tonne higher than the 250 lakh tonne of estimated domestic consumption. A part of this needs to be exported in the next six to seven months within this sugar season (SS) itself to reduce the burden of surplus sugar in the country. This, in turn, will give extra cash flows to the sugar mills to ensure better payment to the farmers and reduction in the cane price arrears, which is accumulating very fast to uncomfortable levels.
