Sugar mills in India’s top producing state, Maharashtra, will stop crushing cane 45 to 60 days earlier than last year as adverse weather has reduced the availability of sugarcane, a senior official told Reuters on Friday. of the state government.
Maharashtra accounts for more than a third of the country’s sugar production.
Shekhar Gaikwad, Maharashtra’s sugar commissioner, said the state could produce 12.8 million tonnes of sugar in the 2022/23 marketing year which started on October 1, down from an earlier forecast of 13.8 million tonnes. .
Lower sugar output could prevent the world’s second-biggest exporter from allowing additional exports, which could support world prices and allow rivals Brazil and Thailand to boost shipments, Reuters reported.
“Excess rainfall reduced the vegetative growth of sugarcane. This year there is low cane available for crushing. A few mills in the central part of the state could start shutting down operations in 15 days, and by the end of April all but three or four mills could have stopped grinding,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Thursday that a record over 5,000 lakh metric tons (LMT) of sugarcane was produced during the 2021-22 sugar season.
India emerged as the world’s largest sugar producer and consumer, as well as the world’s second largest exporter after Brazil in the 2021-22 sugar season (October-September).
“In order to prevent cash loss from sugar mills caused by low sugar prices, the Government of India introduced in June 2018 the concept of minimum selling price (MSP) for sugar and fixed MSP for sugar in Rs. 29/kg which was revised to Rs. 31/ kg wef 14.02.2019,” the ministry said.
The timely intervention of the Central Government since the last 5 years is crucial to build the sugar sector step by step from getting it out of financial difficulties in 2018-19 to the self-sufficiency stage in 2021-22.