Data released till January 15, next data to be released next month
Uttra Pradesh, second largest sugar producing state after Maharashtra, improved the production levels
New Delhi, Jan 17: The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), an organization of private sugar mills in the country, said on Friday that in the current crushing season 2019-20 starting from October 1, 2019, sugar production declined by 26.16 per cent by January 15, 2020 to 108.85 Lakh tonnes only.
Whereas 147.40 lakh tonnes of sugar had been produced in the same period of the previous crushing season. This is 38.55 lakh tonnes less than the production of the previous season for the same period.
ISMA said that three and a half months have passed since the sugar crushing season started, but so far only crushing has started in only 440 mills across the country, compared to 507 mills crushing this time last year. Isma’s second estimate will come next month.
Isma said Maharashtra, the country’s largest sugar producing state, produced 2.55 million tonnes of sugar, a decrease of 55.44 per cent as on 15 January, compared to 57.2 lakh tonnes of sugar produced by mills in the same period last year. This time 139 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane on January 15 in the state, while 189 mills were running at this time last year.
Uttar Pradesh, the second largest sugar producing state, has improved production levels. The state has produced 43.7 lakh tonnes of sugar this time as compared to 41.9 lakh tonnes last year. 119 sugar mills are in operation there.
Also, in the country’s third largest sugar producing state, Karnataka, sugar production declined by 18.16 per cent from a year ago, while the state mills produced 21.9 lakh tonnes of sugar during this period. The level of this time last year was 26.7 lakh tonnes.
Apart from this, sugar production in Gujarat is 3,72,000 tonnes till January 15 in the current financial year, 3,30,000 tonnes in Bihar, 2,05,000 tonnes in Punjab, 2,00,000 tonnes in Haryana, 1,85,000 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Uttarakhand. 1,52,000 tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 1,50,000 tonnes in Tamil Nadu and 1,63,000 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Isma said that due to the delay in running the sugar mill, there has been a decrease in sugar production in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
