As on 31st January, 2020, 446 sugar mills in the country have produced 141.12 lac tons of sugar, as compared to 185.59 lac tons produced by 520 mills last season on the corresponding date.
In Maharashtra, sugar production till 31st January 2020 is estimated at 34.64 lac tons, compared with 70.99 lac tons produced last year same period. In the current 2019-20 SS, totally 143 sugar mills were operating, of which 3 sugar mills have already closed their crushing operations.
In U.P. 119 sugar mills are in operation and they have produced 54.96 lac tons of sugar till 31st January 2020, compared with 52.86 lac tons produced by 117 mills on the corresponding date of last year.
In case of Karnataka, till 31st January, 2020, 63 sugar mills have produced 27.94 lac tons, as compared to 33.76 lac tons produced by 66 sugar mills last year same period.
In case of Tamil Nadu, 21 sugar mills commenced their crushing operations so far for 2019-20 SS and they produced 2.05 lac tons of sugar, as compared to 2.86 lac tons produced by 32 sugar mills in 2018-19 SS on the corresponding date.
Gujarat has produced 4.87 lac tons of sugar till 31stJanuary 2020 with 15 sugar mills in operation. Last year, 16 sugar mills were in operation and they had produced 6.66 lac tons of sugar till 31st January 2019.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 18 sugar mills have produced 2.34 lac tons as on 31st January 2020, as compared to 3.67 lac tons produced by these mills on the corresponding date last season.
In Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, sugar production till 31st January 2020 has been in the order of 4.21 lac tons, 1.94 lac tons, 3.00 lac tons, 2.80 lac tons and 2.26 lac tons, respectively.
Sugar production estimated for 2019-20 SS is 260 lac tons, after accounting for the diversion of sugarcane juice and ‘B’ heavy molasses into ethanol, which will reduce about 8.5 lac tons of sugar production. 260 lac tons of sugar will be around 70 lac tons less than the production of the last season. We can already see that current year’s production is trailing by almost 44.5 lac tons till the end of January 2020 as compared to the previous season.
On the other side, the sugar sales in the first four months of the current season i.e. January 2020 will be almost 7-8 lac tons more than the sugar sales in the first 4 months of the last season. In the last year, the estimated sugar sales by the sugar mills were around 255 lac tons and considering the higher sales in this year, ISMA expects the sugar sales by sugar mills in the current season to be around 260 lac tons.
ISMA has procured the satellite images of the sugarcane area across the country in the end of January 2020. This will give a very good idea of the sugarcane which has already been harvested, and the balance sugarcane which is on the ground. The trend of yields and sugar recoveries of the current season is now available with the Association.
After having physically visited the sugarcane area and thereafter having detailed discussion with the member sugar mills across the country, ISMA will, if required, give its second advance estimates in its Committee Meeting before the end of February 2020.
