Bleak future for Maharashtra sugar industry ahead of polls

PUNE: The elections scheduled for the state assembly in 2014 may not augur well for the sugar industry in top sugar producing state Maharashtra, which will have to crush a record quantity of sugar cane in 2014-15 . Already dealing with the problem of surplus sugar, the state is staring at a record crop next year. The sugar industry thinks that managing the record crop will depend on the will power of the state government, which will be in election mode.

Despite the drought in the previous year, Maharashtra is expected to produce about 76-77 lakh tonne sugar in 2013-14 by crushing about 670 lakh tonne sugar cane. “So far, till November 2013, the new plantation has been done on about 7.5 lakh hectare. The ratoon crop for the next season will be about 3.5 lakh hectare taking the total area under cane cultivation to about 11 lakh hectare ,” said an official of the state government. “This will mean, the state will have to crush at least 800 lakh tonne of cane or even more,” he added.

Earlier, Maharashtra had crushed 800 lakh tonne sugar cane only twice; in 2006-07 and again in 2010-11 . The total number of sugar mills operational in these two years was 163 and 164 respectively . This year, 155 sugar mills including 94 co-operatives and 61 private are operational . According to sources, about 10 to 15 sugar mills could not be operational this year due to financial problems .

“Of the 94 sugar co-operatives , which are functional this year, few will not be able to operate next year due to financial difficulties,” said the source. In these circumstances, the state government will have to give some kind of financial help to at least 170 sugar mills operational so as to crush all the standing cane. Maharashtra co-operation minister Harshvardhan Patil has also expressed concern about the challenge to crush next year's crop at a public function recently.

“We will have to see how to make more number of sugar mills operational next year,” he had said. The term of the current assembly will get over in December 2014. Given that the process of the electing a new assembly is likely to come into force about three months in advance, it is likely to coincide with the commencement of the 2014-15 sugar season. This will make it tough for the sugar industry to expect any sops from the government. To crush all the cane, the other way is to begin the crushing operations on time on October 1 and run the sugar mills for at least 160 to 180 days.