ISMA blue-pencilled its assessment to 32.8 MT from 34 MT
There is a remarkable decrease in India’s sugar production. It has dropped over 8% this year. The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has noted 32.1 Million Tonnes (MT) of sugar production until 15th of May, in the current sugar season (October 2022-September 2023) against 34.92 Million Tonnes (MT) of sugar in the previous season.
Approximately 500 Mills have closed
15th May, just about 500 mills have shut their setups, while 37 factories are still continuing with crushing, including 16 mills in Tamil Nadu and 15 units in Uttar Pradesh. In the previous fiscal 116 mills were in operation during the same period.
Only Uttar Pradesh & Tamil Nadu’s output is high
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are the top three sugar producers in the country. Uttar Pradesh’s output is 10.42 MT this season against 10.15 MT a year-ago. Tamil Nadu has reported a 29.2% rise in sugar production.
“Uttar Pradesh may emerge as the top producer as crushing in the State still continues, while mills in Maharashtra were closed in March,” an industry official said.
Maharashtra & Karnataka’s production has dropped, while in other states it has increased
In the state of Maharashtra, sugar production has dropped from 13.54 MT to 10.53 MT, and in Karnataka, it has decreased from 5.82 MT this season to 5.5 MT. Meanwhile, in Bihar, all the mills have stopped operations. Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, sugar production has gone up this year in comparison to the previous year, the sources said.
Glimpse of consumption
India produced 35.76 MT of sugar in the 2021-22 season. The annual domestic consumption of sugar is pegged at 27.5 MT. The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), an industry body of private sugar companies, has cut its estimate of sugar production for the current season to 32.8 MT from the earlier estimate of 34 MT, after leveraging the drop in Maharashtra’s output over an increase in Uttar Pradesh’s output.