The Karnataka sugar industry has overtaken Uttar Pradesh as the state with the second highest percentage of sugar recovery in the country for 2007-08 (October — September). This is for the first time that mills from Karnataka have achieved this, by recording an average recovery of 10.87 per cent sugar (about 109 kg of sugar for every tonne of cane crushed). UP, on the other hand, recorded an average recovery of 9.8 per cent during the year. Maharashtra continues to be in the first position with a recovery of 11.92 per cent.
According to an assessment of the sugar industry's performance for the sugar year ending September 2008 conducted by Delhi-based National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd, the sugar industry from Karnataka continued to remain the number one producer of sugar in South India and the third largest producer of sugar on an all India basis. In terms of the total quantity of sugarcane crushed and sugar produced, the mills from Karnataka remained at the third position by producing 2.92 million tonnes of sugar after crushing 26.7 million tonnes of cane.
While Maharashtra topped the list by producing 9.07 million tonnes of sugar by crushing 76.14 million tonnes of cane, mills from Uttar Pradesh stood second by crushing 74.73 million tonnes of cane to produce 7.31 million tonnes of sugar during the year 2007-08.
"In Karnataka, we have always strived to achieve higher percentage of sugar recovery year on year. Constant efforts by the mills resulted in achieving higher recovery of sugar during the year. This was mainly because of good quality cane grown in the state and better production management in addition to modern machineries and good technology engaged by the mills," sources at South Indian Sugar Mills Association said.
Among the mills in south India, Karnataka stood at the top position followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu and Puducherry together produced 2.18 million tonnes of sugar after crushing 23.51 million tonnes of cane with a recovery of 9.31 per cent and Andhra Pradesh crushed 13.2 million tonnes of cane to produce 1.33 million tonnes of sugar with 10.12 per cent recovery.
However, estimates for the current sugar year are not encouraging. After two years of bumper sugar production, mills in Karnataka are facing a huge shortage of cane for 2008-09. During the year, the mills in Karnataka are likely to crush 19 million tonnes of sugarcane, a drop of close to 30 per cent over last year. The amount of sugar production is estimated at 2.3 million tonnes, a drop of 20.6 per cent over the previous year.
The shortage of cane is mainly attributed to the drop in the production of cane as a result of lack of rain during the beginning of the monsoon in major growing areas.
The farmers also shifted from sugarcane to other crops like paddy following a drop in the retail price of sugar. Another reason for the shortage of cane is that a large number of farmers in southern Karnataka are diverting their cane to jaggery making.