Maharashtra gets ahead of UP in sugar production after five years; production at 5-year low in UP

The ranking of top sugar-producing states has changed after five years and that too with a wide margin. The sugar production in Maharashtra is estimated to go up to 138 lakh tonnes (lt) in the current crushing season (October 2021-September 2022) while that in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is a distant second at 104 lt. Maharashtra was ahead of UP till 2015-16. UP, which took the lead in 2016-17, remained the country’s top producer till 2020-21 season. But five years later, it has once again gone below Maharashtra. The total sugar production in the country is estimated to go up to 355.50 lt, which is the highest ever.

Prakash Naiknavare, Managing Director (MD), National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCSF), says that there are three reasons for the steep increase in sugar production in Maharashtra — higher rainfall and more water in reservoirs, increase in the acreage of sugarcane, and massive increase in sugarcane productivity. It is due to this that sugar production in Maharashtra is estimated to go up to 138 lt in the current crushing season. Also, the sugar production in the country is the highest ever.

Naiknavare says that the sugarcane production in Maharashtra has gone up from 90 tonnes per hectare to 105 tonnes per hectare in the current crushing season. The CO-8603 variety of sugarcane is giving better yield in the state. Besides, he says, the farmers have also looked after their crop better along with the higher rainfall as they knew they would get better cane prices this year.

Production situation in major sugar-producing states

                                            (lakh tonnes)

* Production estimates

 Sugarcane area goes up in Maharashtra

Also, one of the reasons for the increase in sugar production in the state this year is the unregistered sugarcane area. In 2020-21, the sugarcane area in the state was 11.42 lakh hectares while, according to the Sugar Commissioner’s office, the sugarcane area in the state has gone up by about one lakh hectares to 12.4 lakh hectares in the current crushing season. This additional sugarcane area was not registered with the sugar mills.

Due to the additional sugarcane in the state, the crushing is still going on in the sugar mills and will continue till June. In an ordinary season, the cane crushing ends in the state by the end of April or the beginning of May. Naiknavare says, “Cane is being harvested with machines for faster crushing because we are trying to finish the crushing of all the canes in June before the rains.” Machines are being used more only to compensate for the shortage of cane-harvesting labourers due to excessive heat. Maharashtra has arranged for cane harvesters from the sugar mills of neighbouring Karnataka.

Besides, the state government is giving the sugar mills a subsidy of Rs 20 per quintal because of the lesser recovery of sugar from the cane due to excessive heat. Most of the non-registered area falls in Marathwada which includes districts like Beed, Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded and Aurangabad, which have all produced record sugar mostly from unregistered areas this time. Marathwada that are often drought-affected, but the situation has changed this time due to better rainfall and the sugarcane area has increased there. 

Disease-ridden cane affects production in UP

Besides Maharashtra, sugar production has gone up in Karnataka, too, and stands at 60 lt while that in Gujarat has gone up to 12 lt this year, just short of the record production of 12.35 lt in 2010-11.

On the other hand, sugar production in Uttar Pradesh (UP) had gone up to 126.37 lt in 2019-20, but has dipped to a five-year low of 104 lt in the current season. A major reason for the fall in sugar production in UP that the successful phase of the star cane variety CO-2038 has come to an end in the state. Regarding this, a senior official of a sugar industry group in UP told Rural Voice that this variety covering up to 87 per cent of the area and subsequently its being disease-ridden over the last two years has been a double whammy — there has been a steep decline in the yield on the one hand and a fall in sugar recovery on the other. Due to this, while farmers have been affected by a loss in yield, the fall in recovery has led to a decline in sugar production. Another reason is that sugar production is declining because ethanol is being made directly from sugarcane juice and from B-heavy molasses both. 12.50 lt of sugar was diverted to ethanol in UP, the largest ethanol-producing state.

Record production in the country, yet prices have not fallen

Naiknavare says that despite sugar production in UP having reached a five-year low, the sugar production in the country has reached an all-time high of 355.50 lt due to the record levels of sugar production in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Besides, a significant point is that despite the record sugar production, the sugar prices have not fallen. As against the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of Rs 31 per kg fixed by the government, the price of S-30 grade sugar is Rs 32.50-Rs 33 per kg in Maharashtra while the M-30 grade sugar is selling at Rs 34.50-Rs 35 in UP.

A major reason for this has been the record exports of sugar. Sugar exports have crossed 75 lt in the current year while the exports last year stood at 71.9 lt. Naiknavare says that sugar exports will reach 100 lt in the current year. He says that export deals have been made for 90 lt of sugar so far, of which 85 lt sugar has exited the sugar mills and 75 lt has been shipped from the ports. He says that the government’s decision to impose a ceiling of 100 lt on sugar exports is correct. Besides, he says, the decision-making process has been appropriate in the case of sugar and neither sugar mills nor exporters have faced any sort of problem on this account.