Across the country the sugar mills have produced 342.37 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar between October 1, 2021, and April 30, 2022. This is about 42 lt or 14% higher than 300.29 lt produced during the same period past season. The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has estimated that during the this season, the industry should be able to export over 90 lt of sugar.
“The mills are currently facing the problem in harvesting and transportation of pickable cane still available in the State. Correspondingly, the State government has declared assistance to enable mills to continue crushing till cane lasts,” ISMA stated in a press release.
As per reports from sugar mills and evaluations made by ISMA, sugar sales by the end of March 2022 have been evaluated at 136.14 lt (129.48 lt). Further, the domestic sugar sales allotment released by the government up to May is also higher by 6.5 lt. ISMA expects domestic consumption in the current season to be at 272 lt (265.5 lt).
As per reports from the trade, around 82-83 lt of sugar have been contracted for exports so far. Of this, nearly 68-70 lt are evaluated to have been naturally exported till April end compared with 43.19 lt a year ago.
ISMA said, on the ethanol front, against the total LOI quantity of 425.17 crore litres, 410.32 crore litres have been contracted for and 168.66 crore litres of ethanol have been delivered as on April 24. Of the total supply so far, about 149.16 crore litres i.e., over 88% have been delivered by the sugar industry. The country, on an average, has achieved a combined percentage of 9.82% on the corresponding date.
