New Delhi: According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), 440 sugar mills are in operation in the country as on 15th January 2020 and have produced 108.85 lakh tonnes
of sugar, as compared to 147.40 lakh tonnes produced by 511 sugar mills as on 15th January’ 2019. This is 38.55 lakh tonnes lower as compared to last season’s production for the corresponding period.
In Uttar Pradesh, 119 sugar mills have produced 43.78 lakh tonnes till 15th January, 2020, with an average recovery of 10.83%. In the last 2018-19 SS, 117 sugar mills were in operation on 15th January, 2019 and they had produced 41.93 lakh tonnes of sugar with an average recovery of 10.97%.
In Maharashtra, 139 sugar mills, which are in operation, have produced 25.51 lakh tonnes till 15th January, 2020, as against 189 sugar mills which had produced 57.25 lakh tonnes last year upto same period. As per reports of Commissioner (Sugar), Maharashtra, three sugar mills, one each in Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Beed Districts have closed their operations mainly due to non-availability of labour for harvesting and less availability of sugarcane.
63 sugar mills in Karnataka are in operation on 15th January, 2020, who have produced 21.90 lakh tonnes of sugar, as compared to 26.76 lakh tonnes produced by 65 sugar mills in 2018-19 SS on 15th January, 2019.
In Gujarat, 15 sugar mills are operating for 2019-20 SS and they have produced 3.72 lakh tonnes of sugar till 15th January, 2020. In 2018-19 SS, 16 sugar mills were in operation on 15th January, 2019, who had produced 5.42 lakh tonnes of sugar till that date.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 17 sugar mills are in operation as on 15th January, 2020 and have produced 1.85 lakh tonnes of sugar which is about 1 lakh tonnes less than the sugar produced by 24 mills in 2018-19 SS till 15th January, 2019. One factory in Telangana is reported to have stopped its crushing operations in the current season. In Tamil Nadu, 17 sugar mills are in operation as compared to 28 mills operated on 15th January last year. Sugar mills in Tamil Nadu have produced about 1.50 lakh tonnes of sugar till 15th January, 2020 as against 2.29 lakh tonnes produced last year on the corresponding date.
Mills of Bihar have produced 3.30 lakh tonnes, Haryana 2.00 lakh tonnes, Punjab 2.05 lakh tonnes, Uttarakhand 1.52 lakh tonnes and Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh 1.63 lakh tonnes, till 15th January, 2020.
Based on satellite 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 2019-20 SS in February 2020.
The total finalized quantity of Ethanol to be supplied after first tender stood at 156 Cr ltr, out of which the finalized quantity of Ethanol to be supplied made from B heavy molasses and sugarcane juice stands at 61.63 Cr. ltr and 10.60 Cr. ltr., respectively. It is learnt that the second round of tender is expected to be floated by OMC’s shortly.
As per reports, cane price arrears as on 30th November 2019 was around Rs. 4500 crore, for the cane purchased during the season 2018-19, while the same figure for the season 2017-18 stood at around Rs. 2500 Cr as on 30th November, 2018.
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