The sugar production in the first 45 days of the current season upto November 15 has grown 79% to `13.72 lakh tonne as compared to 7.67 lakh tonne in the same period last season. The sharp rise in sugar production during the said period has been due to the early start of crushing as well a sharp rise in number of sugar mills involved in crushing. As on November 15, 313 sugar mills were crushing as compared to 222 sugar mills in the same period last year, said Indian Sugar Mills’ Association (ISMA) on Monday. Now that the current season is moving into a surplus production one in 2017-18, ISMA has requested the union government to withdraw the stockholding limits on sugar traders with immediate effect. The government has extended the stockholding limit on traders by 2 months upto December 31, 2017, as compared to 6 months which was done in the last three occasions since April 2016. It has been submitted that with surplus sugar availability and lower sugar offtake than expected, the continuance of stock holding limit on traders at this stage is affecting their buying interests. This will affect cash flows, which may prove detrimental to the interests of sugar producers and very soon may impact their paying capacity to the farmers, an ISMA press release said.

The main contributors to the higher production of sugar are the sugar mills in UP and Maharashtra. The UP sugar mills have produced 5.67 lakh tonne upto November 15 as against 1.93 lakh tonne produced last year and nearly 78 mills were crushing as against 55 mills last year same time. Similarly, in Maharashtra as against 95 sugar mills with 1.92 lakh tonne of sugar produced last year, nearly 137 mills were involved in crushing as of now in the current season and produced 3.26 lakh tonne. The third largest sugar producer — Karnataka — has produced almost the same quantity as they produced last year and the situation in the other producing states is almost similar to last year.