Sugar mills in Karnataka have shown their best performance in recent history by producing a record 3.65 million tonnes (mt) sugar during the first nine months of the current sugar year (October-September), registering growth of 49 per cent over the previous year. Karnataka is the third-largest producer of sugar in the country and accounts for about 15 per cent of the country’s production.
With three months remaining in the current season, mills are likely to crush about one mt of sugarcane and produce another 100,000 tonnes of sugar. The rise in production is attributed to availability of sugarcane, capacity addition by mills and better prices.
Between October 2010 and June 2011, 59 mills crushed 33.12 mt of sugarcane, recording a growth of 45.3 per cent over the previous sugar year. During the year, two new mills started crushing, while many existing mills increased their capacity.
“In terms of sugar recovery, the mills achieved better recovery at an average 11 per cent during the current year as against 10.78 per cent in the previous year. As of now, all the mills have stopped crushing for the current sugar year, while about a dozen mills are likely to restart ‘special season’ crushing by the end of July in southern parts of the state,” South Indian Sugar Mills Association (Sisma) officials said. Encouraged by better cane prices last year, farmers in Karnataka increased sown area by about 25 per cent to 519,000 hectares.
For the 2010-11 sugar year, mills in the state have paid Rs 1,800 a tonne to cane farmers in southern parts, 29.5 per cent more than the fair and remunerative price (FRP) fixed by the Centre for the year. Farmers in northern parts of the state got Rs 400 extra per tonne towards harvest and transportation costs. The ex-mill price averaged Rs 25 a kg during the year, Sisma officials said.
With a new record achieved by mills in terms of both cane crushing and sugar production, the industry body is aiming at about 8-10 per cent growth in sugar output for the next year, commencing October. “Going by the current indications, we can expect mills to crush at least 35 mt of sugarcane and produce about 3.8 mt of sugar during the next year 2011-12,” they said.