Maha mills achieve fresh record in sugar production

Kolhapur: Even though all economic activities across the state have been affected due to Covid-19, sugar factories across the state have set a new record by crushing over 1,000 lakh tonne of cane and producing more than 1,000 lakh quintal of sugar during the current crushing season.

According to data released by the sugar commissioner’s office, 1,004 lakh tonne of sugar cane was crushed and mills in Maharashtra have produced 1,053 lakh quintal of sugar till April 26.

Sugar mill operators, however, are worried as massive production may result into huge stock. Sugar expert P G Medhe said demand for sugar in domestic and international market has gone down and over production may cause further problems for the factories. “Mills across Maharashtra will face another problem as production is costlier than Rs 2 for every kg compared to other states in the country”, he said.

Sources from the industry attribute huge production of sugar mainly to satisfactory rainfall last year owing to which number of sugar factories opting for crushing increased. Officials in sugar commissioner office said that around 11 lakh hectare land in Maharashtra was under cane cultivation as against 8 lakh hectare last year.

The highest cane crushing in the past decade took place in 2018-19 when factories collectively crushed 953 lakh tonne of sugar cane and the lowest cane crushing took place in 2016-17 when only 373 lakh tonne of cane was crushed. Several farmers had stayed away from cane cultivation in 2016-17 owing to drought.

This year, the number of sugar mills went up to 188 as compared to 143 that were operational during the last crushing season. According to official data, 188 sugar mills generated bills worth Rs 21,358 crore based on fair and remunerative price (FRP) till April 15. Last year, the bills generated based on FRP amounted to Rs 12,359 crore. Medhe said the huge difference of Rs 8,999 is an indicator of massive cane crushing and sugar production in the state.

While sugar factories have been complaining about financial difficulties, 87 factories have cleared all dues based on FRP. The number of factories that have made part payment to the farmers is 101. As many as 48 factories have made 80 to 99% payment to the farmers during the current crushing season.

According to official data, 19 factories in the state have been issued notices under the Revenue Recovery Code (RCC) for failure in making payment to the farmers. Under the RRC, it is mandatory for the mills to make FRP based payment to the farmers within 15 days after cane is take for crushing by the factories.

An official from sugar commissioner’s office said 25 sugar factories are still operational while remaining have stopped crushing activities. According to a rough estimate, around 20 lakh tonne of cane in the state is yet to be crushed.