India's sugar production fell by 4 percent to 23.7 million tonne (MT) in the first six months of the current marketing year ending September due to lower cane availability.
The country exported 1.15 MT during the October-March period and another 3,00,000 tonnes is expected to be shipped in next couple of months, sugar industry body ISMA said.
Based on the estimates of production, consumption and exports, ISMA has pegged the closing stock of sugar in September this year at around 7.5 MT.
"The All India sugar production up to 31st March 2016 is 23.7 MT. This is about 1.1 MT less than last year, which was expected, since the estimated sugar production in the current season is lower than last year," Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement.
Sugar production of India, the world's second largest producer after Brazil, is estimated to decline to about 26 MT in 2015-16 marketing year (October-September) as against 28.3 MT in the previous year.
"As compared to 366 sugar mills which were working on 31st March last year, 215 sugar mills continue to crush sugarcane in the current season on 31st March 2016," it added.
Stating that the country produced 3.5 MT of sugar in second half, ISMA said that production in the balance period in the current season would obviously be lower with lower number of sugar mills operating in the current season.
Maharashtra has produced 8.2 MT in October-March of 2015-16 as against 9.36 MT in the previous year. Another 0.5-0.6 MT is expected to get produced till September.
Sugar mills in UP have produced 6.57 MT in the first half of 2015-16 against 6.34 MT in the year-ago period. Mills in UP may produce around 0.5 MT in the rest of this season.
"The current year's sugar production is almost equal to the domestic consumption. The sugar mills opened the current season with a significantly high opening stock of 9.1 MT. 1.15 MT of sugar has been physically exported in the current season and as compared to contracts finalized till now, another 3,00,000 tonnes are expected to move in the next couple of months," ISMA said.
Unless and until further export contracts take place, ISMA said the opening stocks of sugar in next season will come down to around 7.5 MT from 9.1 MT in October last.
"...despite expected reduction in sugar production in the next sugar season, it is important to note that the opening stocks as on 1st October 2016, will be very comfortable at about 7.5 MT and, therefore, there will be enough sugar to not only take care of the domestic requirement for the whole year, but will also leave a reasonable opening balance for 2017-18 marketing year," ISMA said.
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