Sugar production till November is one third of last year: ISMA

PUNE: According to Indian Sugar Mills Association ( ISMA), sugar production in the country till November 2013 in the ongoing 2013-14 sugar season is 8 lakh tonnes, which is one third of the sugar produced during comparable period of previous sugar season.

"As compared to 400 sugar mills which were crushing sugarcane at the end of November 2012, only 208 sugar mills have started crushing operations till now in this season. The main reason for just about half the sugar mills having started till now as compared to last year is because of the uncertainty on the cane pricing for 2013-14," stated an ISMA release.

Similarly, as against 149 sugar mills which had started crushing in Maharashtra, only 102 sugar mills have started crushing as of now in the State. As a result, only 4.31 lakh tons of sugar has been produced in the current season as compared to 10.24 lakh tons produced last year upto end of November, the release stated.

Karnataka, the third largest sugar producing state, has also produced only 2 lakh tons in the first two months of the current sugar season in comparison to 7.6 lakh tons produced last year, when during last year 56 sugar mills were under operation then and only 37 sugar mills are in operation now.

Crushing has not begun in Uttarakhand and Bihar at all till now, whereas the situation is not good in the States of Punjab and Haryana also, where only ONE and 6 sugar mills respectively have started crushing as against 11 and 9 last year.

Similarly, only 8 sugar mills have started crushing in Tamil Nadu against 20 last year and 9 in Andhra Pradesh against 21 last year.