The sugar production in the country has been less this year largely due to weather conditions, first drought and then floods, in two major sugarcane producing states Maharashtra and Karnataka

 

Though the COVID-19 lockdown does not appear to have had much effect on the processing by mills, according to industry body ISMA, sales have been affected.

 

Bulk buying by manufacturers of ice creams and confectionery items is also down but ISMA expects the sales as also exports to pick up when the lockdown is over.

 

According to ISMA, sugar mills across the country produced 258.01 lakh tonnes of sugar between October 1, 2019, and April 30, 2020, which is 63.70 lakh tonnes less than 321.71 produced in the same period last year.

 

As compared to 90 sugar mills which were crushing sugarcane on April 30, 2019, 112 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane on April 30, 2020 this year.

 

India’s annual consumption is around 260 LT but there are plenty of stocks available so that’s not really an issue, says ISMA.

 

Compared to last year’s sugar sales in the first five months of the season, the sugar despatches from sugar mills this year was higher by 10.24 LT till February 2020. 

 

Due to lockdown, the sugar sales in March and April, 2020, was lower than what was sold last year, by about 10 LT bringing us back to same levels as last year, says ISMA.

 

Sugar mills have reportedly seen an increase in sugar offtake in the last one week or so of April 2020.

 

Further, it is generally expected that sugar demand will increase as soon as the lockdown is withdrawn, especially because of demand from the traders to refill the pipeline, which is almost dry, and also because of the consumption increase coming up due to summer demand for beverages, ice creams, juices etc.

 

The timely reallocation of ethanol by the OMCs to depots in other states like Jharkhand, Bengal, MP, AP, Telengana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha and Assam has ensured that there has not been much disruption and movement of ethanol as per contracts signed between OMCs and ethanol suppliers.

 

In fact, this has given an opportunity to OMCs to test their preparedness in taking ethanol and storing the same in the depots in these states too. It has also allowed us to understand the policies of the state governments towards accepting and giving permissions for moving ethanol to these new locations, which can then be smoothened for better compliance in future, says ISMA.

 

With the objective of assessment of sugarcane availability and crop condition for harvesting in the next crushing season 2020–21, ISMA will obtain satellite images of the sugarcane area across the country in later part of June 2020 to make its preliminary estimates of sugarcane availability and sugar production for 2020-21 season.

 

Meanwhile, UP sugar mills have produced 116.52 LT as on April 30, 2020, 3.72 LT higher than 112.80 LT achieved last year on the corresponding date.  

 

Of 119 mills operating this year, 44 mills have ended crushing. As many as 75 mills are continuing their operations compared to 68 mills as on April 30, 2019. 

 

The pace of closure of factories has slowed down a bit during the last fortnight as cane availability increased for crushing in the current season due to premature closure of most of the gur/khandsari units operating in the state.

 

Almost 75% factories have closed in east UP and the remaining are expected to close within 5-8 days. About 30% factories have closed in central UP, and most of the remaining are expected to close in the next 15-20 days.

 

In west UP, three factories have closed so far, some factories are expected to start closing by May 10, whereas several of them may continue till end of this month.

 

In Maharashtra, sugar production till April 30, 2020, was 60.67 LT, compared with 107.15 LT produced last year in the same period, almost 46.5 lakh tonnes less than last year.

 

In the current 2019-20 SS, 143 mills have already closed their crushing operations in the state and only three sugar mills are operating.

 

All the operating sugar mills in Karnataka have closed their crushing operations and have produced 33.82 LT till yesterday.