Gujarat’s 15 mills, too, have clocked an increased production during the period. The 15 sugar mills in the state have together produced 8.49 lakh tonne of sugar till 15th March’ 2021 as against 7.78 lakh tonne of sugar produced last year.
India’s sugar production rose by 20% to 258.68 lakh tonne till March 15 on higher cane production, industry body Isma said on Wednesday. The production in the corresponding period in the previous marketing year stood at 216.13 lakh tonne. The rise in the country’s output is mainly driven by a spectacular 68% increase in performance by sugar mills in Maharashtra. During the period, 188 mills in the state produced 94.05 lakh tonne compared to 55.85 lakh tonne in the year-ago period. In the current crushing season, 48 sugar mills in the state have closed against 56 mills that had closed by this time last year.
In Uttar Pradesh, where 120 sugar mills were in operation during the season, production has gone down slightly. While 87.16 lakh tonne sugar was produced last year, 84.25 lakh tonne has been produced so far this year. Of the 120 mills, 18 mills have closed operations for the season.
Sugar production in Karnataka, has also increased to 41.35 lakh tonne from 33.35 lakh tonne. Out of the 66 sugar mills, 62 mills have already closed their operations in the state and only 4 mills are in operation.
During the 2020-21 sugar season, 502 sugar mills in the country were in operations as against 457 mills which operated last year. Of these 502 mills, 331 are still crushing cane while 171 had stopped crushing. During the previous sugar season, 319 were in operation while 138 mills stopped crushing in the same period.
On the ethanol front, sugar mills have already supplied 80.10 crore litres of ethanol till March 8, against the total contracted quantity of 297 crore litres. While the country’s average blending has reached 7% for the first time, states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Bihar have achieved a blending percentage of upto 10%.
Regarding sugar exports, the industry body said “as per market reports, against a total export quota of 60 lakh tonne, around 43 lakh tonne of exports have already been signed”.