Sugar production is projected to rise to normal by 2.65 million tonnes

Mumbai, Ta. 25 February 2020, Tuesday

Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), a top sugar producing company, has raised its production estimates for the current sugar season by a modest margin. Based on satellite images taken in the last week of January for sugarcane-producing areas, Isma raised its sugar production estimate to 1.5 million tonnes at its meeting on Tuesday.

Isma has taken into account the image, sugar recovery and yield of the harvested and remaining areas. Sugar production in the current sugar season, which was earlier estimated at 8.5 million tonnes, has now been increased to 8 million tonnes in a current sugar season, ISMA said in a statement.

This estimate is due to the reduction in sugar production due to excess production of ethanol through heavy diversion and sugarcane juice diversion.

Uttar Pradesh's sugar mills are expected to produce a total of 8 million tonnes of sugar, which was the same as last year. Sugar production in Maharashtra is projected to drop significantly to 1 lakh tonnes this year, which was 6.8 million tonnes last season.

Karnataka is the third largest producer of sugar in the country. Sugar production is expected to be around 1 lakh tonnes in the current season, which was 5.7 lakh tonnes in the 3-7 season.

Esma also anticipates exporting 1 lakh tonnes of sugar in the current season. At the beginning of the current season, the opening stock of sugar stood at 8.5 million tonnes on October 1st.

Domestic consumption of sugar stands at 10 million tonnes. Considering the export of 5 lakh tonnes of sugar this year and the production of 1.5 million tonnes this year, the closing stock of sugar is expected to be one crore tonnes at the end of the year.

If the government continues the policy of buffer stocks of forty lakh tonnes of sugar, the mills have around 1 lakh tonnes of sugar to sell in the market at the end of the year, Isma said. This level of stocks is practical.