According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association, 487 sugar mills are in operation in the country as on 15th January 2021 and have produced 142.70 lakh tonnes of sugar, as compared to 108.94 lakh tonnes produced by 440 sugar mills as on 15th January’ 2020. This is 33.76 lakh tonnes higher as compared to last season’s production for the corresponding period.
In Uttar Pradesh, 120 sugar mills have produced 42.99 lakh tonnes till 15th January, 2021. In the last 2019-20 SS, 119 sugar mills were in operation on 15th January, 2020 and they had produced 43.78 lakh tonnes of sugar. The slightly lower production this year is because of reportedly lower cane yields and lower sugar recoveries in the State.
In Maharashtra, 181 sugar mills, which are in operation, have produced 51.55 lakh tonnes till 15th January, 2021, as against 139 sugar mills which had produced 25.51 lakh tonnes last year upto same period. This is 26.04 lakh tonnes higher as compared to last season’s production for the corresponding period.
66 sugar mills in Karnataka are in operation on 15th January, 2021, who have produced 29.80 lakh tonnes of sugar, as compared to 21.90 lakh tonnes produced by 63 sugar mills in 2019-20 SS on 15th January, 2020.
In Gujarat, 15 sugar mills are operating for 2020-21 SS and they have produced 4.40 lakh tonnes of sugar till 15th January, 2021. In 2019-20 SS, similar number of sugar mills were in operation on 15th January, 2020, who had produced 3.72 lakh tonnes of sugar till that date.
In Tamil Nadu, 20 sugar mills are in operation as compared to 17 mills operated on 15th January last year.
Sugar mills in Tamil Nadu have produced about 1.15 lakh tonnes of sugar till 15th January, 2021 as against 1.57 lakh tonnes produced last year on the corresponding date.
The remaining States of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha have collectively produced 12.81 lakh tonnes of sugar till 15th January, 2021.
For the year 2020 – 21, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have allocated about 309.81 Cr ltrs., including about 39.36 Cr ltrs. from damaged food grains and surplus rice. This would mean a blend of about 7-8%, depending on the total fuel demand.
However, some states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand have already achieved blending percentage of 9 – 10 %, as on 11th January’ 2021.
Allocated quantity of ethanol indicates about 20 lakh tonnes of estimated net lower sugar production during 2020-21 SS due to diversion of B heavy molasses and sugarcane juice away from ethanol and into sugar production. The major contributions (about 93%) are from the major sugar producing states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. This is as estimated by ISMA in its 1st advance estimates of sugar production released in October’ 2020.
As is the practice, ISMA has procured the satellite images in January’ 2021. 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 2020-21 SS, if required, by the end of January, 2021.
As per market reports, about 3 lakh tonnes of sugar have been exported during the period October to December’ 2020, which is against the MAEQ of 2019-20 SS which was extended upto 31st December’ 2020.
