Sugar cane yield dips further in Tamil Nadu

COIMBATORE: Cane recovery has dropped for the third successive season in Tamil Nadu due to excessive rain and literally no sunshine in the 2010-11 season. Sugar juice recovery, which went down to 8.88% in the last season from 9.62% in the previous season, is expected to fall further to 8.4% this season.

“The northeast monsoon usually ceases by the end November or the first week of December. But this time, there was continued rain till the first week of January. For good cane recovery, we need temperature at the minimum during night and maximum during daytime,” said Ponni Sugars managing director and South Indian Sugar Mills Association president N Ramanathan.

Last year, Tamil Nadu sugar mills saw lower cane recovery due to less availability of cane. “Mills operated at a lower rate and were forced to cut cane which had not fully grown, leading to a poor recovery,” said a sugar technologist. The state, where 43 sugar mills in operation, is anticipated to produce 1.58 million tonne of sugar from 16.77 million tonne of cane at an expected cane recovery rate of 9.42% this time, according to government data.

Due to adverse weather conditions, a drop of around 0.5% to 1% in cane recovery has been recorded. Millers are worried now because they have to pay the state advisory price (SAP) of Rs 1,900 per tonne for sugarcane linked to a sugar recovery of 9.5% despite poor recovery.

“There is no penalty for less cane recovery though we need to pay premium if there is better recovery,” said Ramanathan.The SAP is more than the Union government’s fair and remunerative price of Rs 1,391 per tonne for 2010-11.

Sugar consumption in the state is around 1.4 million tonne. “Apart from domestic supply, Tamil Nadu mills export a substantial quantity as international prices are ruling at around Rs 34-35 per kg compared to the ex-factory price of Rs 29 per kg in the state,” said an industry expert.