The Sugar productions up to 15th January, the first fortnight of the New Year 2019 is 146.86 lac tons by 510 sugar mills, as per the press release issued by the ISMA.
ISMA has procured the satellite images of cane area already harvested and the remaining unharvested area in the fields, across the country during mid-season i.e. in the second week of January 2019. On the basis of these images of harvested and balance area, trend of yields and sugar recoveries achieved till now as also expected yield/sugar recovery in the balance period of the sugar season, sugar production in the current season is estimated to be around 307 lac tons, against the first advance estimates of 315 lac tons released by ISMA in October 2018. This is after considering estimated diversion of 5 lac tons of sugar into the production of ethanol through ‘B’ heavy molasses.
Till 15th January 2019, 510 sugar mills in the country have produced 146.86 lac tons of sugar, compared with 135.57 lac tons produced on the corresponding date of last year, i.e., current year’s production is 8.32% ahead of last year’s production. This is because the mills have started earlier this season, even though the whole year’s sugar production will be less than last year.
As on 15th January 2019, 117 sugar mills in U.P. were operating and they crushed 382.1 lac tons of sugarcane and produced 41.93 lac tons of sugar.
Estimates based on satellite images procured in January 2019 as also considering the reduction in yield and increased sugar recovery % this year, mills in U.P. are expected to produce a total of 112.86 lac tons in 2018-19 SS, against 120.45 lac tons produced in 2017-18 SS.
In the case of Maharashtra, 188 sugar mills which are operating as of now have produced 57.25 lac tons of sugar till 15th January 2019. This is 7 lac tons higher than last year’s production as on this date when 183 mills were in operation, as sugar mills in the current season started about 10-15 days earlier this season and are expected to close earlier.
As per second advance estimates of ISMA, Maharashtra is expected to produce 95 lac tons in 2018-19 SS, which is the same as the first advance estimates made by ISMA in September 2018. In 2017-18 SS, Maharashtra had however produced 107.23 lac tons.
The other major sugar-producing State viz. Karnataka is expected to produce 42 lac tons of sugar in 2018-19 SS, against 37.52 lac tons produced in 2017-18 SS.
Till 15th January 2019, Karnataka has produced 26.76 lac tons of sugar with 65 sugar mills in operation. On the corresponding date of last season, sugar production in the State was 21.35 lac tons. As per the second advance estimates, the other States viz. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, Odisha, and Uttarakhand are expected to produce 62 lac tons, which is about 2.5 lac tons more than last season’s production from these States.
Sugar production as on 15th January 2019 in Tamil Nadu was 2 lac tons, Gujarat was 5.30 lac tons, Bihar 3.24 lac tons, A.P & Telangana 3.10 lac tons, Punjab 2.0 lac tons, Haryana 2.20 lac tons, Uttarakhand 1.35 lac tons and M.P & Chattisgarh 1.65 lac tons.
Considering the trend of sugar exports, it is expected that sugar mills could be able to export about 30-35 lac tons of sugar in 2018-19 SS against the allocated MIEQ of 50 lac tons, unless the export quota is backed up by the Government with some force or penalty for the sugar mills who are not exporting against their quotas.
Cane price arrears as on 31st December 2018 was around Rs. 19,000 crores, including Rs. 2800 crore of arrears of the previous season. This is substantially higher to the arrears last season as on 31st December 2017 of around Rs. 10,600 crores.
