Southern sugar mills operating at 25% capacity due to chronic cane shortage

Increase in production cost, reduction in sugar prices increased pressure

Even as sugar output in India is expected to rise 25 per cent this year, sugar mills in the south are reeling under low production and extremely low cane crushing capacity utilisation.

While drought has resulted in low capacity utilisation due to lower cane availability, the mills are also having to deal with increasing fixed cost and price falls, which are impacting their financials.

According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) data, 21 sugar mills in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana produced 190,000 tonnes of sugar till December 31, 2017, which is 16,000 tonnes lower than the sugar produced by 25 mills in