January 5, 2016
Sugaronline | http://goo.gl/D7Gl8t
About 470 sugar mills in operation had produced 7.985 million tonnes of sugar till December 31, 2015, 6.5% higher than last season's production, the Indian Sugar Mills Assocation (ISMA) said on Monday, according to India's The Hindu newspaper.
In 2014/15 sugar season, 490 sugar mills had produced 7.495 million tonnes till December 31.
So far, the mills have contracted for export of around 800,000 tonnes of sugar and have physically despatched around 300,000 tonnes, ISMA said, adding that since there was no parity on export of raw sugar due to high cost of cane in India and depressed global prices, Indian mills produced "almost negligible quantum of raw sugar" and are mainly exporting white sugar.
In Maharashtra, 169 sugar mills are in operation and had produced 3.375 million tonnes till December, 31, 2015, against 172 sugar mills producing 3.264 million tonnes in the same period last year. From the beginning of this season till December 31, the average sugar recovery in the State stands at 10.36% against 10.44% last year.
The 113 mills in Uttar Pradesh had crushed 18.321 million tonnes of cane and produced 1.832 million tonnes, with an average recovery of 10%. In 2014/15, 118 sugar mills in UP had crushed around 18.6 million tonnes to produce 1.695 million tonnes of sugar with an average recovery of 9.2%.
In Karnataka, 62 sugar mills in operation had produced 1.550 million tonnes against 1.243 million tonnes produced by 63 sugar mills in 2014/15 sugar season till December 31, 2014.
In Gujarat, 19 mills had produced 440,000 tonnes of the sweetener against 18 mills producing 388,000 tonnes in 2014/15.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 25 sugar mills had produced 215,000 tonnes, 41,000 tonnes less than the sugar produced by 29 mills in 2014/15, while in Tamil Nadu, 15 mills are in operation, compared with 19 mills last year, but the production is almost similar at 80,000 tonnes, the sugar producer's body said.
Sugar production in Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh is almost at the same level as last year, with the Bihar mills producing 140,000 tonnes, Haryana 100,000 tonne, Punjab 95,000 tonnes, Uttarakhand 70,000 tonnes and Madhya Pradesh 75,000 tonnes.
ISMA said while domestic ex-mill prices had improved in the past fortnight by INR1 to INR2 a kilo, the all-India average for the three months (October to November 2015), stood at around INR27 (US$0.40)-INR28/kilo, which is still Rs 4-5/kilo lower than the all-India average cost of production.