India’s sugar production has touched 13.73 lakh tonne (LT) till November 15 of the ongoing 2017-18 season, up 79% compared to production of 7.67 LT in the first 45 days of last year. As per Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) the higher output so far was on account of early crushing operation. As many as 313 sugar mills were under operation till November 15 of this season, as against 222 mills in the same period last year. ISMA has pegged the output at 25.1 million tonne (MT) in 2017-18 season as against 20.2 MT in the last sugar season (October-September).
The main contributors to the higher production of sugar are the sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh and sugar mills in Maharashtra. UP sugar mills have produced 5.67 LT of sugar up to November 15, 2017 as against 1.93 LT produced last year. 78 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane as on November 15, 2017 as against 55 sugar mills last year same time.
Similarly, in Maharashtra as against 95 sugar mills which were crushing sugarcane last year as on November 15, 2016, when 1.92 LT of sugar was produced, 137 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane this year on November 15, 2017 and 3.26 LT have already been produced. The third largest sugar producer, namely, Karnataka has produced almost the same quantity as they produced last year.