The sugar production in the first 45 days of the current season upto November 15 has grown 79 per cent to Rs 13.72 lakh tonne as compared to 7.67 lakh tonne in the same period last season. The sharp rise in sugar production 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.