New Delhi: According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), sugar mills across the country have produced 258.01 lakh tonnes of sugar between 1st October 2019 and 30th April 2020. This is about 63.70 lakh tonnes less than 321.71 lakh tonnes produced at the same time last year. However, as compared to 90 sugar mills which were crushing sugarcane on 30th April 2019, 112 sugar mills are crushing sugarcane on 30th April 2020 this year.
U.P. sugar mills have produced 116.52 lakh tonnes of sugar as on 30th April 2020, which is 3.72 lakh tonnes higher than the production of 112.80 lakh tonnes achieved by them last year on the corresponding date. Out of 119 mills operated this year, 44 mills have ended their crushing. 75 mills continue their operations this year, compared to 68 mills which were operating on 30th April’ 2019 last year. The pace of closure of factories have slowed down a bit during the last fortnight as cane availability has increased for crushing in the current season due to premature closure of most of the gur / khandsari units operating in the State.
Almost 75% factories have closed in East UP and the remaining are expected to close within 5-8 days. About 30 % factories have closed in Central UP, and most of the remaining are expected to close in the next 15-20 days. In West UP, 3 factories have closed so far, some factories are expected to start closing by 10th May ‘2020, whereas several of them may continue till end of this month.
In Maharashtra, sugar production till 30th April 2020 was 60.67 lakh tonnes, compared with 107.15 lakh tonnes produced last year same period, almost 46.5 lakh tons less than last year. In the current 2019-20 SS, 143 mills have already closed their crushing operations in the State and only 3 sugar mills are operating.
All the operating sugar mills in Karnataka have closed their crushing operations and have produced 33.82 lakh tonnes of sugar till 30th April 2020. However, few mills might operate in the special season commencing July’ 2020. Last year during the special season, Karnataka mills had produced 1.05 lakh tonnes of sugar. As compared to the above, 43.25 lakh tonnes was produced in 2018-19 SS on the corresponding date.
In case of Tamil Nadu, some of the mills which were temporarily closed due to operational bottlenecks due to lockdown have resumed their operations. As on date, 15 mills are in operation, out of 24 sugar mills which operated this season. Till 30th April 2020, sugar production in the State was 5.41 lakh tonnes, compared with 7.02 lakh tonnes produced on the corresponding date last year. Of the 32 sugar mills, 26 mills had ended their operations and only 6 mills were in operation as on 30th April 2019, last year. Last year, during the special season, 2.13 lakh tons was produced by mills in Tamil Nadu.
Gujarat has produced 9.02 lakh tonnes of sugar till 30th April 2020 and only 1 sugar mill in operation. Last year, all the mills were closed for the season 2018-19 and 11.21 lakh tonnes of sugar had been produced on the same date.
The remaining States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Odisha have collectively produced 32.57 lakh tonnes till 30th April, 2020.
