India's Sugar Output Declines Lowest in 5 Years, Mills Produced Only 77.95 Lakh Tonnes This Season
Call it the excessive monsoon factor or less production of sugarcane, Indian sugar mills produced 77.95 lakh tonnes of sugar till December 31. This is by far the lowest production of sweetener in the first three months of the current sugar season -- October-September, and lowest in last five years.
New Delhi, January 2: Call it the excessive monsoon factor or less production of sugarcane, Indian sugar mills produced 77.95 lakh tonnes of sugar till December 31. This is by far the lowest production of sweetener in the first three months of the current sugar season -- October-September, and lowest in last five years. Comparing the last year's production with this time, it was 30 percent more which stood at 111.72 lakh tonnes.
According to a press statement from the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), quoted by Hindu BusinesLine, this years' production of sweetener was lowest since the 2014-15 season and stood at 74.95 lakh tonnes. The data also states that only 437 mills are crushing sugarcane, out of 507 mills in the same period of the previous season. Kisan Diwas 2019: Five Major Farmers Protests in India This Year.
Considered as one of the sugar belt of India, in Maharashtra's 137 sugar mills produced 16.50 lakh tonnes till December 31, against 44.57 lakh tonnes through 187 sugar mills last year. Also, report states that the since the beginning of the season there has been a drop of 0.5 percent in production -- compared to last year. Experts opine that this might due to the flood in the monsoon in sugarcane producing region of the state. Apart from the floods, Commissioner (Sugar) of Maharashtra states that two sugar mills -- situated in Ahmednagar and Aurangabad districts -- closed their operations due to the lack of labour for harvesting and less availability of sugarcane.
While in another sugarcane belt of India -- Uttar Pradesh -- only 119 operational sugar mills produced 33.16 lakh tonnes of sugar till December 31, in comparison to 117 sugar mills producing 31.07 lakh tonnes lat year. Similar is the situation with Karnataka, where the 63 operating mills produced only 16.3 lakh tonnes of sugar against 21.03 lakh tonnes by 65 mills in the same period last year. However, all other states produced nearly 12 lakh tonnes this season.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 02, 2020 09:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).