Sugar output unlikely to be hit by Maharashtra floods

Industry sees domestic production in sugar year 2005-06 (October-September) to be around 180 lakh tonne, thereby suggesting the crop damage due to floods in western Maharashtra has been minimal.

"Production in Uttar Pradesh is up by 10 lakh tonne to 70 lakh tonne in Uttaranchal it has gone up to 7 lakh tonne from last year's 5 lakh tonne. Further, overall the yield and recovery has gone up. This will be able to meet the shortfall seen in Maharashtra (45 lakh tonne now from earlier 48 lakh tonne)," said S.L. Jain, secretary general of Indian Sugar Mills Association.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Mawana Sugars Ltd chairman Siddharath Shriram.

After a meeting of sugar industry representatives with the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday, Vinay Kumar, executive director of National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories said, "With the assessment still on, it will be difficult to give out exact information. But we feel the loss to be less than anticipated."

"The loss will be around 4-5 lakh quintal of cane. However, with a gain being seen in terms of recovery and yield in other regions (like Uttar Pradesh), the loss in sugar output will be restricted to 2-3 lakh tonne."

Earlier, even Pawar had said the sugar output next year is likely to be higher than industry's estimate of 180 lakh tonne, adding that "it will be too early to give an exact estimate as of today, with the cane plantation not yet complete".Kumar, however, assesses the crop to be around 175-176 lakh tonne. "I do not think it will touch 180 lakh tonne."

Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation's managing director Prakash Naiknavare, however, begs to differ about the crop damage.

"Sugar bowl of Maharashtra has been hit and while the actual assessment is still on, we can say that the state's sugar output estimates will be reduced to 46 lakh tonne from the previous estimate of 50 lakh tonne."

Maharashtra's sugar bowl consists of Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Pune, Sholapur and Amarnagar and the first five of these were flood-hit.

Naiknavare adds, "even the fully-mature standing cane was hit as it was submerged for over 4 days, thereby leading to its suffocation. As the water has gone now, it has left the plant to decay and thereby making it useless for sugar production".

As of today, India is not self-sufficient in the sugar production. In sugar year 2004-05, India imported around 16 lakh tonne of raw sugar to meet its domestic demand while the output stood at 128 lakh tonne.