Pune: Sugarcane crushing season in Maharashtra will start from November 22. The decision was taken in a meeting convened by governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Maharashtra is the only state where the state cabinet decides over cane crushing season. With ongoing political stalemate, sugar commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad had suggested to start cane crushing from November 25. The season is already delayed, and millers are anxious to start crushing.
Flood in Pune, Sangli, Satara, Solapur and Kolhapur districts, the sugar belt of Maharashtra, have majorly hit the sugarcane crops, which will ultimately be going to impact the sugarcane production in Maharashtra. Also, farmers have uprooted sugarcane in the severely drought-affected regions of the state to feed their animals as other green fodders were not available. It will also likely to impact sugar output in Maharashtra.
A total of 195 sugar mills participated in sugar season 2018-2019. According to the Sugar Commissionerate report, the factories crushed 951.79 lakh tonnes of sugarcane to produce 107.19 lakh tonnes of sugar at a recovery rate of 11.26 per cent.
