Sugar bodies see 15% production loss

Sugar cooperatives in Maharashtra are expecting a production loss of 15 per cent owing to a delay in crop harvesting following unseasonal rains in the state.

As per an estimate, in India about 7-10 per cent sugarcane is crushed for jaggery and khandasari production while 2-5 per cent used for juice making and seeding for next season. Remaining about 85 per cent is crushed for sugar production.

The season started in Maharashtra on time. But crushing was delayed because of unavoidable circumstances. In October itself there was 600 lakh tonne of sugarcane for crushing to produce an estimated 70 lakh tonne of sugar.

Early crops attain maturity in the first half of September and therefore, the harvesting goes in full swing this time around resulting the mills to begin crushing. But, this year monsoon lingered till late September and therefore, sugarcane could not be harvested at its natural maturity.

"While harvesting the field should remain dry and there should not be any mud attached to sugarcane. Farmers, therefore, waited very long this year for the fields to go dry. Although harvesting is presently going in full swing, we are anticipating about 15 per cent recovery loss this year due to long standing crop," said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director,

Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd. Sugarcane requires about 9 hours of full sunshine in October for full recovery. But, this year, full sunshine happened only for few hours in

October because of cloudy climate. This is a very rare phenomenon which hampers sugar recovery despite the cane grows in healthy environment, Navare added.

In addition to the above mentioned factors, two more reasons are set to add the setback in adequate sugar production. Summer heat in May, with extended crushing time, coupled with agitation in some part of Maharashtra over higher price of cane.