The crushing operations of the current sugar season (SS 2015-16), which began late October/early November, have seen an encouraging beginning. As of November 15, nearly 175 mills have started crushing operations as against 155 during the same period in SS 2014-15. Till November 15, sugar mills produced 7.61 lakh tonne as against 5.74 lakh tonne in the corresponding period last year, a rise of 33%.
In Maharashtra, 114 sugar mills have begun operations and produced 4.31 lakh tonne as on November 15 as against 97 mills with 3.10 lakh tonne production in the same period last season. In Karnataka, there were 30 sugar mills in operation as on November 15 as against 25 sugar mills which operated last year on the corresponding date. As on November 15, production in the state was 1.60 lakh tonne, almost similar to the production in the same period of last season, according to Indian Sugar Mills’ Association (ISMA).
In its press release in Chennai on Thursday, ISMA said 16 of 17 sugar mills in Gujarat have started crushing operations in the month of October 2015 itself and these mills have produced 1.10 lakh tonne till November 15. Last year, the same number of mills were in operation in the state and had produced 78,00 tonne in the same period. In the case of Tamil Nadu, six sugar mills began operations in the said period and sugar production was 40,000 tonne as compared with 0.12 lakh tonne produced by six mills up to November 15, 2014. Two mills in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana started their crushing in early November 2015 and have produced 5,000 tonne till November 15, 2015. Last year, six sugar mills were in operation and had produced 12,000 tonne up to November 15, 2014.
According to reports submitted by sugar factories to the Union government, mills have exported about 80,000 tonne in October, 2015. However, there are reports that sugar mills have already made contracts for export of around 2 to 3 lakh tonne in November, 2015.