Sugar mills vie for priority allotment after CM Yogi’s announcement
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced prioritizing increased sugarcane areas to mills with better arrears payment records, boosting competition among UP’s 121 operational sugar mills. The 98 private and 23 cooperative mills are urged to clear dues, with current payments at Rs 3,126 crore (87.6%) of total cane prices, improving from 80.7% in 2022-23 and 77.7% in 2021-22. Poor performers face reduced cropping areas.
Keshav Agarwal
Pilibhit: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s announcement to prioritise allotment of increased sugarcane cropped area to sugar mills with better records in paying off arrears has spurred competition among mills to clear outstanding cane prices.
UP has 121 operational sugar mills, including 23 in the cooperative sector and 98 in the private sector. Secretarygeneral of UP Sugar Mills Association Deepak Guptara said the CM’s announcement came soon after the Lok Sabha election results were declared.
Information from UPSMA indicated that the sugarcane cropping area would be reduced for mills performing poorly in clearing cane price dues and allocated proportionately to better performers. Guptara said sugar mills have paid Rs 3,126 crore towards cane price payments, equivalent to 87.6% of the total cane price procured. This is an improvement compared to Rs 30,658(80.7%) paid in the 2022-23 crushing season and Rs 27,363 (77.7%) paid in the corresponding period of the 2021-22 crushing year.
