The sugarcane crushing season in Maharashtra has gathered momentum. Sugar mills have crushed 375.71 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugarcane to produce 351.98 lakh quintal sugar by December 25, 2020.

Mills in Kolhapur division crushed the maximum (86.11 lt ) sugarcane, followed by Pune division (83.84 lt ) to produce 93.84 lakh quintals and 82.4 lakh quintals of sugar, respectively.

In Vidarbha region, Amravati and Nagpur divisions have only two and three sugar mills, that too privately-owned, operating this season. These mills have crushed 2.92 (lt) and 0.75 (lt) sugarcane to produce 2.34 lakh quintal and 0.59 lakh quintal sugar, respectively.

Overall, 178 sugar mills — including 90 co-operative and 88 private mills — have started the crushing season this year. The average extract rate achieved by mills is 9.37 per cent.

According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), current year production is about 19.30 lakh tonnes higher than the last year figure on the corresponding date (December 15). The higher production is because of the earlier start of crushing operations in the State and higher availability of sugarcane this season.