According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), 492 sugar mills were in operation in the country as on 31st December 2021 and have produced 115.55 lakh tonnes of sugar, as compared to 110.74 lakh tonnes produced by 481 sugar mills as on 31st December 2020. This is 4.81 lakh tonnes higher as compared to last season’s production for the corresponding period.
In Maharashtra, 189 sugar mills, which are in operation, have produced 45.77 lakh tonnes till 31st December, 2021, as against 179 sugar mills which had produced 39.86 lakh tonnes last year upto same period. This is 5.91 lakh tonnes higher than the last year production on the corresponding date.
In Uttar Pradesh, 119 sugar mills have produced 30.90 lakh tonnes till 31st December, 2021. In the last 2020-21 SS, 120 sugar mills were in operation on 31st December, 2020 and they had produced 33.66 lakh tonnes of sugar.
69 sugar mills were in operation in Karnataka on 31st December, 2021, who have produced 25.65 lakh tonnes of sugar, as compared to 24.16 lakh tonnes produced by 66 sugar mills in 2020-21 SS on 31st December, 2020.
In Gujarat, 15 sugar mills are operating for 2021-22 SS and they have produced 3.5 lakh tonnes of sugar till 31st December, 2021. In 2020-21 SS, similar number of sugar mills were in operation on 31st December, 2020, who had produced 3.35 lakh tonnes of sugar till that date.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 12 sugar mills have produced 1.05 lakh tonnes of sugar till 31st December, 2021, as compared to 94000 tons produced by similar number of sugar mills in 2020-21 SS, till 31st December, 2020.
In Tamil Nadu, 15 sugar mills are in operation as compared to 19 mills which operated on 31st December last year. Sugar mills in Tamil Nadu have produced about 92000 tons of sugar till 31st December 2021 as against 73000 tons produced last year on the corresponding date.
Mills of Bihar have produced 1.94 lakh tonnes, Haryana 1.74 lakh tonnes, Punjab 1.40 lakh tonnes, Uttarakhand 1.23 lac ton and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh 1.40 lakh tonnes, till 31st December 2021.
As is the practice, ISMA will procure satellite images in 2nd week of January’ 2022. Based on the images of the cane area remaining to be harvested, trend of recovery, yield and drawal percentage of sugarcane achieved so far, ISMA will come out with its second advance estimates of sugar production for 2021-22 SS, by end of January, 2022.
As per information furnished by mills and estimations made by ISMA, total sugar sales in the current season upto November, 2021 was around 47.50 lakh tonnes against domestic sales quota of 46.50 lakh tonnes given by the Government. It is noteworthy that Government had increased the time period for sale of additional quota of 2.5 lakh tonnes which was allotted for the month of September, 2021, upto 31st October, 2021. Last year, during the same period sugar sales was around 45.61 lakh tonnes as against sales quota of 45.50 lakh tonnes.
Against a requirement of 459 Cr ltr for 10% ethanol blending, OMCs have so far allocated about 366 Cr ltr of ethanol for supply in ESY 2021-22. Further, OMCs had floated the 3rd EOI indicating requirement of about 94 Cr ltr on 25th December, 2021, for which about 30 Cr ltrs of offers have been received by them. Currently, OMCs are examining the bids and are expected to make the allocations in a few days’ time.
Owing to fall in global prices of raw sugar, not much export contracts happened in the last one month or so, beyond the 38 – 40 lakh tons of export contracts which have already been signed. Since almost 9 months are left for the current season, mills are still waiting for the opportune time to enter into further export contracts.
