A recently released press note by ISMA (Indian Sugar Mills Association) has stated that as on December 31, 2015, 470 sugar mills were in operation in the country and they produced 79.85 lakh tonne sugar, which is 6.5% higher as compared to last season’s production for the corresponding period. In 2014-15 SS, there were 490 sugar mills in operation on December 31, 2014, and they produced 74.95 lakh tonne of sugar till that date.
In Maharashtra, 169 sugar mills, which were in operation, produced 33.75 lakh tonne till December 31, 2015, as against 172 sugar mills which operated on the corresponding date last year, produced 32.64 lakh tonne. From the beginning of the season and till December 31, 2015, average sugar recovery percentage in the state stood at 10.36% as against 10.44% achieved for the corresponding period of 2014-15 Sugar Season.
In Uttar Pradesh, 113 sugar mills were in operation and crushed 183.21 lakh tonne of sugarcane and produced 18.32 lakh tonne as on December 31, 2015, with an average recovery of 10%. In 2014-15 SS, 118 sugar mills were in operation on December 31, 2014, and they crushed around 186 lakh tonne of cane to produce 16.95 lakh tonne of sugar with an average recovery of 9.2%.
Some 62 sugar mills in Karnataka were in operation on December 31, 2015, who produced 15.50 lakh tonne of sugar, as compared to 12.43 lakh tonne produced by 63 sugar mills in 2014-15 SS on December 31, 2014.
In Gujarat, 19 sugar mills were operating during 2015-16 SS and they produced 4.40 lakh tonne of sugar till December 31, 2015. In 2014-15 SS, 18 sugar mills were in operation on December 31, 2014, who had produced 3.88 lakh tonne of sugar till that date.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 25 sugar mills produced 2.15 lakh tonne of sugar till December 31, 2015, and this was 0.41 lakh tonne less than the sugar produced by 29 mills in 2014-15 SS till December 31, 2014.
In Tamil Nadu, 15 sugar mills were in operation as compared to 19 mills operated on December 31 but sugar production was almost similar at 0.80 lakh tonne till December 31, 2015.
Sugar production in other states viz. Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh remained almost at the same level. Mills of Bihar have produced 1.40 lakh tonne, Haryana 1.00 lakh tonne, Punjab 0.95 lakh tonne, Uttarakhand 0.70 lakh tonne and Madhya Pradesh 0.75 lakh tonne.
Though domestic ex-mill sugar prices have improved in the past fortnight by Rs 1 to 2 per kilo, the all India average ex-mill price of sugar for the last three months i.e. October to November, 2015, is around Rs 27-28 per kilo, which is still Rs 4 to 5 per kilo below the all-India average cost of production of sugar.
As per information available, sugar mills have contracted for export of around 8 lakh tonne of sugar till date and have physically despatched around 3 lakh tonne of sugar for exports. Since there is no parity on export of raw sugar due to high cost of sugarcane in India and depressed global price, sugar mills in India have produced almost negligible quantum of raw sugar and are mainly exporting white sugar.
