Pilibhit : Sugar mills in UP, Maharashtra struggle ascane shortage hits production
Pilibhit: Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are struggling this season due to lower cane crushing volumes, reduced production, and declining recovery rates. Early mill closures, adverse weather, and sugarcane shortages have worsened the crisis. Experts cite erratic weather, crop diseases, and higher prices offered by jaggery units as key reasons behind the shortfall.
Pilibhit : Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are struggling this crushing season due to lower cane crushing volumes, reduced sugar production, declining sugar recovery rates, and early mill closures caused by sugarcane shortages and adverse weather. The 2023-24 crushing year had projected a much better outlook for the mills.
Managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Limited (NFCSF),Prakash P. Naiknavare, said, “Of the 200 operational sugar mills in Maharashtra, 170 shut down before March 15 this year, compared to just 43 during the same period last season. In Uttar Pradesh, 31 out of 122 mills closed before March 15, whereas only 18 had shut down last year.”
Naiknavare added that the crushing season was delayed by over a month due to assembly elections, shortening the mills’ operational period. Maharashtra’s cane commissioner, Siddharam Salimath, told TOI, “One of the major reasons for the sugarcane shortage was the significant decline in cultivation due to adverse weather.”
“Erratic weather led to premature flowering, reducing yields by 25-30% in key regions. Persistent wet conditions also delayed harvesting, causing sucrose degradation before crushing began,” he added.
NFCSF data shows that in Uttar Pradesh, mills crushed 843.2 lakh tons this season, down 2% from 859.7 lakh tons last year. Sugar production fell to 80.9
lakh tons from 88.5 lakh tons, while the recovery rate declined from 10.3% to 9.6%. Maharashtra’s mills crushed 832 lakh tons of sugarcane by March 15, a 17% drop from 1,005 lakh tons last year. Sugar production also declined by over 22%, falling to 78.6 lakh tons from 100.5 lakh tons. The sugar recovery rate dropped from 10% to 9.4%.
“Apart from excessive rainfall, a late monsoon, and flooding—especially in Gangetic regions, which damaged crops—the red rot disease and top shoot borer infestation in the Terai and western UP significantly affected yield and quality,” said the president of a major sugar mills group on the condition of anonymity.
“The biggest factor behind the sugarcane shortage, however, is its diversion to khansari and jaggery units, which offered over Rs 400 per quintal with immediate cash payments. This was driven by the UP govt’s decision not to increase the state-advised price beyond last year’s Rs 370 per quintal,” he added.
To read more about Sugar Industry continue reading Agriinsite.com
Source : The Times Of India
