Sugar Output Up 31% At 142.70 Lakh Tn In 2020-21 Till Jan 15: ISMA

n the first three and a half months of FY21 (from October 2020), India’s sugar production increased by 31% to 142,70 lakh tonnes, industry body ISMA said on Monday.

India as a second largest producers of sugars in the world registered 108.94 lakh tonnes of sugar production, until 15 January of FY20 (corresponding period last year).

Sugar output is projected by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) to increase by 13% to 310 lakh tonnes in the 2020-21 marketing year on a probably higher availability of sugar cane compared to 274.2 lakh tonnes last year.

Releasing the latest production update, ISMA said that so far this year the country’s sugar production is significantly greater by 33.76 lakh tonnes compared to last year’s production

In the observed period, there were ~ 487 sugar mills in operation as against 440 in the corresponding period last year, it said.

As of January 15, 2021, production in Maharashtra, (the second-largest sugar producing state in the country), increased to 51.55 lakh tonnes from 25.51 lakh tonnes last year.

Similarly, production in Karnataka, (the third largest sugar producing state in the country), increased to 29.80 lakh tonnes from 21.90 lakh tonnes last year.

Production in Gujarat reached 4.40 lakh tonnes, in Tamil Nadu 1.15 lakh tonnes, while the remaining states of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha collectively produced 12.81 lakh tonnes of sugar until January 15, 2021.

On ethanol, ISMA stated, for FY21, oil marketing companies (OMCs) have allocated about 309.81 crore litres, including ~ 39.36 crore litres from damaged food grains and surplus rice. Depending on the overall fuel demand, this would allow ethanol-petrol blending of 7-8%.

It added that, according to market estimates, about 3 lakh tonnes of sugar were exported in October-December 2020 in accordance with the Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) allocated to sugar mills in FY20, which was extended until December 2020.

Source:IBEF