As on 15th December 2018, 462 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane for the year 2018-19 and they have produced 70.52 lac tons of sugar, i.e. 1.48 lac tons (2.1 percent ) higher than the sugar production on the corresponding date of previous sugar season, of 69.04 lac tons of sugar. Last year on the corresponding date, 476 mills were operating.
In Maharashtra, 178 sugar mills are in operation and they have produced 29 lac tons of sugar till 15th December, 2018. In 2017-18 SS, there were 176 sugar mills in operation as on 15thDecember, 2017 and they had produced 25.70 lac tons. Average sugar recovery achieved so far is 10.18% as compared to 10.10% last year on the same date.
In Uttar Pradesh, 116 mills have produced 18.94 lac tons of sugar till 15th December, 2018 lower than last year, when same number of sugar mills had together produced 23.37 lac tons on the corresponding period.
The third largest producer of sugar viz. Karnataka, have produced 13.94 lac tons of sugar till 15th December, 2018. This is slightly higher than 11.24 lac tons of sugar production in 2017-18 SS as on 15th December, 2017. During the current 2018-19 SS, 63 sugar mills are in operation as on 15th December, as compared to 62 operated on the corresponding date of 2017.
As regards Gujarat, 16 sugar mills are in operation and they have produced 3.10 lac tons of sugar till 15th December, 2018. In 2017-18 SS, as on 15th December, 2017, 17 sugar mills were in operation and they had produced 2.75 lac tons of sugar till that date.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 18 sugar mills could start crushing till 15th December, 2018 and they produced about 1.05 lac tons of sugar till that date. Last year, 20 sugar mills were in operation on 15th December 2017 and they had produced 0.98 lac tons.
There are 5 sugar mills in Tamil Nadu in operation and sugar production till 15th December, 2018 was about 0.85 lac tons, as compared to 0.47 lac tons produced by 19 sugar mills as on 15th December, 2017.
In regard to Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, there are 9, 16, 14 and 19 sugar mills are in operation respectively and they have produced 1.36 lac tons, 0.35 lac tons, 0.90 lac tons and 0.65 lac tons, respectively.
The production in Maharashtra and Karnataka are slightly higher than last year at the same time because the mills have started their sugarcane crushing earlier as compared to the previous season. On the other hand UP sugar mills had started their crushing this year slightly later as compared to last year and hence have produced less sugar than the previous sugar season at the same time.
Owing to lower than normal rainfall and heavy infestation of white grub in several sugarcane growing districts of Maharashtra, sugar production in some of the important sugarcane growing areas in the state will be badly affected and therefore it is expected to produce less than last year.
