Sugar production for FY24 has been much higher than initially anticipated : Atul Chaturvedi, Shree Renuka Sugars
“My take would be that the overall sugar production in the country would be probably marginally in excess of 32 million tonnes and the sugar diversion, which was earlier capped at around 1.7 million tonnes by the government, might actually end up being about 2.3 or 2.4 million tonnes,” says Atul Chaturvedi, Shree Renuka Sugars.
Tell us firstly about this news, the fact that there are reports emerging or suggesting rather that the government may allow allocation of additional 8 lakh tonnes of sugar for ethanol production. Do you see meritin these reports,I mean, have you heard any formal notification to this regard?
In fact, we have not heard any official notification to that effect. But what we have seen from the Bloomberg reports and all that the government is deciding or probably planning to allow another 800,000 tonnes of sugar diversion. But having said that, I think the crushing season is more or less over. It is at the fag-end of the crushing season. So, whatever extra B heavy molasses have been lying with the mills, that will get diverted to ethanol because the molasses cannot be converted back into sugar. So, my take would be that the overall sugar production in the country would be probably marginally in excess of 32 million tonnes and the sugar diversion, which was earlier capped at around 1.7 million tonnes by the government, might actually end up being about 2.3 or 2.4 million tonnes.
