Sugar mills across the country produced 305.68 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar till May 31, nearly 13.2 per cent more than 270 lt produced during the same period last year, the Indian Sugar Mills’ Association has said.

This season’s sugar production is almost over with only seven mills – three in Tamil Nadu and four in Uttar Pradesh – still crushing sugarcane. Mills in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, however, will have a brief special sugarcane crushing season later this year like they did last year. Last year, these special sessions yielded a little more than 3 lt of sugar. 

Mills in UP produced 110.16 lt of sugar this year so far which was 15.3 lt lower than last year. Maharashtra, on the other hand, produced 106.28 lt of sugar, about 44.6 lt more than that last year, in which quality of cane was affected due to drought. Karnataka mills produced 41.67 lt of sugar as compared to 33.8 lt in the same period last year. 

As per port information and market reports, export contracts for 58 lt of sugar against Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) of 60 lt of sugar have already been entered into so far. 

On the ethanol front, against the total quantity of 346.52 crore litres, 321.18 crore litres have been contracted for and 145.38 crore litres of ethanol have been supplied till May 24.