Sugar output up 31% at 142.70 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 till January 15: ISMA

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The country’s sugar output rose by 31 percent to 142.70 lakh tonnes in the first three-and-a-half months of the 2020-21 marketing year that started in October 2020, industry body ISMA said on Monday.

Sugar production in India, the world’s second-largest sugar-producing country, stood at 108.94 lakh tonnes till January 15 of the 2019-20 marketing year (October-September).

Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has projected the sugar output to increase by 13 percent to 310 lakh tonnes in the 2020-21 marketing year on likely higher availability of sugarcane as against 274.2 lakh tonnes last year.

Releasing the latest production update, ISMA said the country’s sugar output is higher by 33.76 lakh tonne so far this year as compared to last year’s production for the corresponding period.

As many as 487 sugar mills were in operation as against 440 in the said period, it said.

Sugar production in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s leading sugar producing state, remained slightly lower at 42.99 lakh tonnes till January 15 of this marketing year, as against 43.78 lakh tonne in the year-ago period because of reportedly lower cane yield and lower sugar recoveries in the state.

The output in Maharashtra, the country’s second-largest sugar-producing state, rose to 51.55 lakh tonne from 25.51 lakh tonne in the said period.

Similarly, the production in Karnataka, the country’s third-largest sugar-producing state, increased to 29.80 lakh tonne till January 15 of this year from 21.90 lakh tonne in the year-ago period.

Production reached 4.40 lakh tonne in Gujarat, 1.15 lakh tonne in Tamil Nadu, while remaining states of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha have collectively produced 12.81 lakh tonne of sugar till January 15 of this year, ISMA said in a statement.

On ethanol, ISMA said oil marketing companies (OMCs) have allocated about 309.81 crore litres for 2020-21 marketing year, including about 39.36 crore litres from damaged food grains and surplus rice.

This would enable ethanol-petrol blending of 7-8 per cent, depending on the total fuel demand.

However, some states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand have already achieved blending percentage of 9-10 percent on January 11.

The industry body said that the allocated quantity of ethanol indicates about 20 lakh tonne of estimated net lower sugar production during 2020-21 due to diversion of B-heavy molasses and sugarcane juice to ethanol.

As per market reports, about 3 lakh tonne of sugar was exported during October-December 2020 as per the Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) allotted to sugar mills during the 2019-20 marketing year, which was was extended up to December 2020, it added.