Sugar production for the period ended January 31, 2020, in the current sugar season (October-September) has declined by 24% to 14.11 million tonne (MT), against 18.55 MT in the same period last sugar season.
As on January 31, as many as 446 sugar mills were in operations as compared to 520 mills in the corresponding period last season, said Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma).
In Maharashtra, production of the sweetener till January-end this season was estimated at 3.46 MT as compared with 7.1 MT produced in the year-ago period. In the current 2019-20 SS, totally 143 sugar mills were operating of which three mills have already shut their crushing operations.
In Uttar Pradesh, 119 sugar mills were in operation and these produced 5.5 MT till January-end as compared to 5.28 MT produced by 117 mills in the corresponding date of last season.
In case of Karnataka, 63 sugar mills have produced 2.79 MT, against 3.37 MT produced by 66 mills last year same period. In case of Tamil Nadu, 21 sugar mills commenced their crushing operations so far for 2019-20 SS and these mills produced 2.05 lakh tonne, against 2.86 lakh tonne produced by 32 mills in 2018-19 SS on the corresponding date.
Gujarat saw production of 4.87 lakh tonne with 15 sugar mills in operation. Last year, 16 sugar mills were in operation and had produced 6.66 lakh tonne. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 18 sugar mills have produced 2.34 lakh tonne as on January 31, 2020, against 3.67 lakh tonne produced by these mills on the corresponding date last season.
In Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, sugar production was in the order of 4.21 lakh tonne, 1.94 lakh tonne, 3 lakh tonne, 2.80 lakh tonne and 2.26 lakh tonne, respectively.
According to Isma, sugar production estimated for 2019-20 SS is 26 MT, after accounting for the diversion of sugarcane juice and ‘B’ heavy molasses into ethanol, which will reduce about 8.5 lakh tonne. An estimate of 26 MT for the current season will be less than around 7 MT than the production of the last season. Current year’s production is trailing by almost 4.45 MT till the end of January 2020 as compared to the previous season.
Sugar sales in the first four months of the current season i.e. January 2020 will be almost 7-8 lakh tonne more than sugar sales in the same period last season. In last year, the estimated sugar sales by sugar mills were around 25.5 MT and considering the higher sales in this year, Isma expects sugar sales by mills in the current season to be around 26 MT.
Satellite images of sugarcane area across the country procured by Isma during January-end 2020 will give a good idea of sugarcane which has already been harvested and the rest of the crop on the ground.
Trend of yields and sugar recoveries of the current season is now available with the association. Isma will, if required, give its second advance estimates in its committee meeting before February-end after physically completing visit to sugarcane areas and thereafter discussion with member sugar mills across the country.
After having physically visited the sugarcane area and thereafter having detailed discussion with member sugar mills across the country, ISMA will, if required, give its second advance estimates in its committee meeting before February-end.