Mumbai, Mar 18
India’s net sugar production fell marginally to 280.79 lakh tonnes till March 15 of the current marketing year that started in October 2023, according to trade data released on Monday.
Sugar marketing year runs from October to September.
“Sugar production till 15th March 2024 in the current 2023-24 season reached 280.79 lakh tonnes, against 282.60 lakh tonnes produced last year on the corresponding date,” Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement. Number of factories operating as on March 15 this year stood at 371 as against 325 mills on the same day last year. In Uttar Pradesh, sugar production stood at 88.40 lakh tonnes as against 79.63 lakh tonnes during the period under review. Sugar output in Maharashtra fell marginally to 100.50 lakh tonnes from 101.92 lakh tonnes, while production in Karnataka declined to 47.55 lakh tonnes from 53.50 lakh tonnes. Recently, ISMA has pegged sugar production at around 323 lakh tonnes for the 2023-24 marketing year after the diversion of 17 lakh tonnes towards ethanol manufacturing via sugarcane juice/B-heavy molasses.
The net sugar production stood at 328.2 lakh tonnes during the 2022-23 marketing year with a diversion of 38 lakh tonnes of sweetener for ethanol-making from sugarcane juice and B-heavy molasses. Last week, ISMA revised its estimates for gross production of the sweetener upwards by 9.5 lakh tonnes to 340 lakh tonnes in the marketing year ending September. The gross sugar output stood at 366.2 lakh tonnes in the previous year. In January, the association had projected the gross sugar production, without any diversion for ethanol, at 330.5 lakh tonnes in the 2023-24 marketing year.
Last month, the central government decided to hike Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) — the minimum price that mills have to pay to sugarcane growers — by Rs 25 to Rs 340 per quintal for the 2024-25 season starting October 2024.
“This decision of the central government is going to benefit more than 5 crore sugarcane farmers (including family members) and lakhs of other persons involved in the sugar sector,” an official statement had said.
Sugarcane is grown mainly in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka.
