New Delhi: India’s sugar production has gone up by 42% to 39.51 lakh tonne in the first two months of the current 2017-18 marketing year that started in October, the industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said on Tuesday.
ISMA has pegged 251 lakh tonnes (lt) sugar output this year as against 202lt in the last year. Releasing the latest production figures, ISMA said sugar production during October-November reached 39.51lt, much higher than 27.82lt in the year-ago period. As many as 443 mills were operating till November this year as against 393 mills in the year-ago period.
As per the ISMA data, sugar production in Uttar Pradesh—the country’s leading sugar maker, rose to 13.59lt till November from 8.48lt in the year-ago period. Similarly, the output in Maharashtra—the second biggest producer—increased to 14.90lt from 9.42lt in the said period. In Karnataka too, sugar production rose marginally to 6.82lt in October-November as against 6.80lt in the same period last year.
Gujarat mills produced 1.80lt till November of this year when compared with 1.42lt in the same period last year. “Crushing operations in all the other states have also begun and slowly the pace of crushing is picking up,” ISMA said. Other states together produced 2.40lt in October-November as against 1.7lt in the year-ago period.
“Most of the sugar mills in UP had advanced their date of start of crushing by a fortnight or so, and hence sugar production is on higher side,” the industry body said. The current year started with an opening balance of around 38.76lt, which is the lowest ever in the last several years.