Sugar Production in India till February Declines 22 Percent

During 2019-20 SS from 1st October 2019 to 29th February 2020, 453 sugar mills had started operations (as against 520 sugar mills which had operated last year), 68 sugar mills across the country have ended their operations by 29th February 2020.

Those 453 sugar mills in the country have together produced 194.84 lac tons of sugar till 29th February 2020, as compared to 249.30 lac tons produced by 520 mills last season till 28th February 2019.  

 In Maharashtra, sugar production till 29th February 2020 was 50.70 lac tons, compared with 92.88 lac tons produced last year the same period.  In the current 2019-20 SS, out of 145 sugar mills operated, 25 sugar mills have ended their crushing due to the non-availability of cane in their area.  Last year in the same period, 40 sugar mills had ended their operations for the season 2018-19, but that was out of 192 mills that had operated last year.  In other words, as on 29th February 2020, 120 sugar mills were crushing against 152 sugar mills last year on 28th February 2019.

In U.P. 119 sugar mills are still operating and they have produced 76.86 lac tons of sugar till 29th February 2020, compared with 73.87 lac tons produced by 117 mills as on 28th Feb. 2019.

In the case of Karnataka, till 29th February 2020, 63 sugar mills have produced 32.60 lac tons, as compared to 41.73 lac tons produced by 66 sugar mills which operated last year till 28th February 2019.  During the current season, 63 sugar mills were in operation, out of which 32 have already ended their crushing.  Last year in the same period, out of 66 sugar mills which operated, 34 sugar mills had ended their crushing operations by 28th Feb. 2019.  The pace of daily crushing this year is much less than last year at the same corresponding period.

In the case of Tamil Nadu, 21 sugar mills commenced their crushing operations so far for 2019-20 SS and they produced 3.20 lac tons of sugar, as compared to 4.63 lac tons produced by 32 sugar mills in 2018-19 SS till 28th February 2019.
Gujarat has produced 6.83 lac tons of sugar till 29th February 2020.  Out of 15 sugar mills operated this year, one sugar mill has ended its operation.  Last year, 16 sugar mills were in operation and they had produced 8.79 lac tons of sugar till 28th February 2019.  2 out of 16 sugar mills had stopped their crushing by the end of February last year.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 18 sugar mills have produced 3.65 lac tons as on 29th February 2020, as compared to 5.70 lac tons produced by 25 mills in 2018-19 SS till 28th February 2019. Four out of 18 sugar mills have stopped crushing this season, as compared to 1 out 25 sugar mills stopped crushing last year by 28th February 2019.

In Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, sugar production till 28th February 2020 has been in the order of 5.74 lac tons, 2.85 lac tons, 4.50 lac tons, 4.30 lac tons, 3.30 lac tons, respectively.  2 sugar mills in Bihar, and 4 in Punjab have ended crushing operations by 29th February 2020.

As per market reports, contracts for exports have been made for a quantity of over 35 lac tons, out of which about 22-23 lac tons have been moved out of sugar mills for shipment.  Since the Department of Food and PD has reallocated about 6 lac tons of MAEQ of sugar mills which had not made any efforts towards exports of sugar till 31st January 2019, amongst mills who are willing to export more sugar, it is expected that out of 60 lac tons of MAEQ, sugar mills could achieve an export target of over 50 lac tons in 2019-20 SS.