Nepal sugar industry delegation visits Maharashtra

PUNE: A committee of the government of Nepal for sugar toured extensively in Maharashtra this week. The committee visited Maharashtra government officials in Mumbai and Pune. It also visited the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) at Pune. VSI is the sugarcane research institute.

"The committee members asked for some technical help for Nepalese sugar industry," said Shivajirao Deshmukh, director general, VSI. The Nepalese delegation also visited institutes related to the co-operative sector as most of the state's sugar industry is in co-operative sector. It included a visit to Pune-based Vaikunthbhai Mehta co-operative training institute. Later, the committee went to Kolhapur and Sangli district to visit some of the co-operative sugar mills and take information about their working.

This also included a visit to the Warna complex, the dairy and sugar co-operative from Kolhapur. The local sugar production in Nepal is sufficient to meet about 35% to 40% of the domestic demand. For the rest of its sugar requirement, it is dependent upon India.

The per hectare yield of sugar cane is 47 tonnes/ha and sugar recovery is 8% in Nepal. In Maharashtra, the average sugar recovery is 11%.