According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), during 2021-22 SS, 516 sugar mills started their crushing operations as against 503 mills which operated last year i.e., 13 more mills operated this year.
283.26 lac tons of sugar have been produced till 15th March 2022 as against 259.37 lac tons produced last year by 15th March 2021 i.e. higher by 23.89 lac tons.
As on 15th March 2022, 81 mills have stopped crushing and 435 sugar mills in the country were still crushing. As compared to that, 172 mills had stopped operations last year as on 15th March 2021 and 331 mills were operating then.
In Maharashtra, sugar production till 15th March’ 2022 was 108.95 lac tons, compared with 94.05 lac tons produced last year same period. In the current 2021-22 SS, 13 mills have closed their crushing operations in the State, most of them in Kolhapur region, and remaining 184 sugar mills are operating. On the corresponding date in last season, 49 mills had closed their operations while 140 mills were in operation.
In U.P., 120 sugar mills which were in operation, have produced 78.33 lac tons of sugar till 15th March 2022. Out of 120 sugar mills, 16 sugar mills have stopped crushing operations, most of them located in Eastern U.P. Similar number of mills operated last year in the State and had produced 84.25 lac tons as on 15th March 2021. 18 mills had closed their crushing operations on the corresponding date last year.
In case of Karnataka, till 15th March, 2022, 72 sugar mills have produced 54.65 lac tons of sugar. Out of the 72 sugar mills, 24 mills have closed their operations in the State and 48 mills are still operating in the State. During the corresponding period last year, 66 sugar mills had produced 41.95 lac tons sugar. Of the 66 sugar mills, 62 had ended their operations and only 4 mills were in operation as on 15th March 2021, last year.
In Gujarat, 15 mills are currently in operation and have produced 9.15 lac tons of sugar till 15th March, 2022. Last year, similar number of sugar mills operated while 2 mills had closed their operations on the corresponding date and had produced 8.49 lac tons of sugar till 15th March, 2021.
In case of Tamil Nadu, 26 sugar mills commenced their crushing operations for 2021-22 SS and have produced 5.75 lac tons of sugar, as compared to 4.16 lac tons produced by similar number of sugar mills in 2020-21 SS on the corresponding date i.e. 15th March,2021.
The remaining States of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Odisha have collectively produced 26.43 lac tons of sugar till 15th March, 2022.
2 mills in A.P., 3 mills in Telangana, 9 mills in Bihar, 6 mills in Punjab, 5 mills in M.P., 1 mill in Chhattisgarh, 1 mill in Rajasthan & 1 mill in Odisha have ended their crushing operations so far in the current season.
On the ethanol front, against the total LOI quantity of 416.33 Crore ltrs, 113.17 Cr ltrs of ethanol have been supplied as on 13th March’ 2022. Out of the total supply so far, about 86% comprises of ethanol made from sugarcane juice / B heavy molasses. Contracted quantity as on date is of 391.85 Cr. ltrs as against LOIs of about 416 crore ltrs issued by OMCs. The Country on an average has achieved a blending percentage of 9.45% till mid-March since December, 2021.
As per reports from the trade, around 64-65 lac tons of sugar export have been contracted for so far. Out of which, about 47 lac tons of sugar have been physically exported from India upto end of February, 2022 in the current sugar year, as compared to about 17.75 lac tons exported last year during the corresponding period. Further, considering the pipeline, it is expected that physical exports by the end of this month may be around 55 – 56 lac tons. Accordingly, it is estimated that in the current season, Indian sugar industry should be able to export 75 lac tons, which will be a record achievement once again.
Considering estimated domestic consumption of 272 lac tons and production of 333 lac tons, the export of 75 lac tons will help reduce the closing stocks of sugar at 68 lac tons on 30th September, 2022. This will be 77 lac tons lower to the stocks of 145 lac tons Indian sugar industry had 3 years back on 30th September, 2019.
