India’s sugar output fell by 8%
Sugar output in India has declined to 8% till April 15 for the current marketing year ending September. The India Sugar Mill Association (ISMA) said that sugar output fell to 24.34 million tonnes, while the export of the same was at 1.35 million tonnes.
Last year the total sugar production for the same period through mills was 26.46 million tonnes.
ISMA in a statement said that, sugarcane dues that the mills have to pay to the farmers also saw a decrease from Rs.21,800 crore during last year to Rs. 13,300 crore for the current year.
The country’s leading sugar producing state, Maharashtra saw a fall in the production from 9.96 million tonnes last year to 8.36 million tonnes of sugar till April 15 of the current marketing year.
According to ISMA, sugar output has seen a downward plunge, mainly in Karnataka and Maharashtra. In FY2015, there were 245 active sugar mills in the country, which has dropped to 117 mills in FY2016. The recovery rate of sugar in in Maharashtra was 11.29%, which suppressed the quantity of sugarcane at 7.4 million tonnes this year.
Also, sugar output in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh has seen a decline in the current period. It is estimated that Karnataka’s sugar output has decreased from 4.58 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes, while the sugar output in Andhra Pradesh fell to 8,10,000 tonnes.
As for sugar production in Uttar Pradesh till 15th April 2016, it was 6.77 million tonnes (almost the same as last year), while the recovery rate for the same was at 10.6%. However, sugar output in Tamil Nadu saw an increase of 9,25,000 tonnes and is expected to manufacture another 4,50,000 tonnes in the remaining period of the current year.
India is the second largest producer of sugar in the world after Brazil. The sugar production in India is expected to decrease from 28.3 million tonnes to 26 million tonnes in the current financial year.
ISMA said that sugar export touched 1.35 million tonnes during the first six months of CY2016 and the mills have produced high-quality sugar of 13.3 million tonnes for domestic consumption during the same period. It further stated “As domestic market stabilizes, it is expected that cane price payments to the farmers will improve and arrears will come down substantially further in the next few months.”
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