Owing to weather, sugar production, sale goes down

New Delhi, May 1

The sugar production in the country is less this year largely due to weather conditions, first drought and then floods, in two major cane producing states Maharashtra and Karnataka. While the Covid-19 lockdown does not appear to have had much effect on processing by mills, the offtake/bulk buying by manufacturers of ice creams, juices and beverages is down. The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) expects the sales and also the export to pick up as soon as the lockdown is over.

Sugar mills across the country produced 258.01 lakh tonnes of sugar between October 1, 2019 and April 30, 2020, which is 63.70 lakh tonnes (LT) less than 321.71 LT produced in the same period last year. As compared to 90 sugar mills which were crushing sugarcane on April 30 2019, 112 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane on April 30 this year, says the ISMA. India’s annual consumption is around 260 LT but there are plenty of stocks available so that’s not really an issue, it adds.

As compared to the last year’s sugar sales in the first five months of the season, the sugar dispatch from mills this year was higher by 10.24 LT till February, 2020. Due to the lockdown, the sugar sales in March and April this time was lower by about 10 LT than what was sold last year. — TNS