Sugar production jumps nearly 3-folds to 14.10 lakh tonnes till Nov 15: ISMA

Sugar production in India, the world's second-largest producer of the sweetener, has surged nearly three-folds to 14.10 lakh tonnes in the 2020-21 season so far due to better crop output and timely commencement of the crushing operation, industry body ISMA said on Tuesday.

Sugar production stood at 4.84 lakh tonne in the same period of the 2019-20 season (October-September), it said.

Since India is going to have another surplus sugar year, the industry body said it is awaiting policy decisions from the government on exports and buffer stock creation with subsidy support.

According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), unlike last year, owing to very good rainfall and sufficient water availability in reservoirs in Maharashtra and Karnataka, as also better cane availability due to higher cane acreage and improved yield per hectare, crushing season commenced well in time during the last week of October 2020.

As many as 271 sugar mills were in operation till November 15 of the current season against 127 in the year-ago period.

Of the total sugar output, mills in Uttar Pradesh -- the country's leading sugar producing state -- manufactured 3.85 lakh tonnes of sugar till November 15, higher than 2.93 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

Mills in the country's second-largest sugar producing state, Maharashtra, manufactured 5.65 lakh tonnes of sugar so far this season, it said in a statement.

In the same period last season, the crushing operation had commenced very late in the fourth week of November due to drought and lesser sugarcane.

Similarly sugar production in Karnataka rose to 3.40 lakh tonnes from 1.43 lakh tonnes in the said period last year.

Among other states, sugar production reached 80,000 tonne in Gujarat till November 15 of this season, as against 2,000 tonne last year.

In Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, about 18 factories have commenced crushing operations and have together produced 40,000 tonne of sugar till November 15 of this season.

Stating that India will have another surplus sugar year, the industry body said there is a need to continue export of about 60-70 lakh tonne of the excess sugar.

The sugar supply will be more with an opening balance of 106.4 lakh tonne sugar in 2020-21 season and an estimated sugar production of 310 lakh tonnes this season, it said.

On ethanol, the industry body said mills have supplied 160.23 crore litres of ethanol (equivalent of 5 per cent blending with petrol) till November 9 of the 2019-20 season (December-November).

In the 2020–21 season, oil marketing companies (OMCs) have allocated about 262.27 crore litres against offers received for about 322.57 crore litres of ethanol from sugar mills.

However, total requirement as per the tender floated by OMC's is about 457.64 crore litres, which could mean a blend of about 7-8 per cent depending on the total fuel demand.

The allocated quantity of ethanol indicates about 20 lakh tonne of sugar diversion to ethanol production, it added.