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Sugar factories across the country are in dire straits with the steep increase in the sugarcane prices and a considerable rise in the cost of production, said Bajpayee, professor of Sugar Technology at the National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur.
Inaugurating a national-level workshop organised in Mysore today on the ‘Process Options to Produce Sugar for Domestic and Global Requirements’ organised by the NSI, S Nijalingappa Sugar Institute, Belgaum and Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya Sugarcane Institute, Mandya, he said, sugar factories now have to think of cutting down their cost of production and increasing production. They also have to seek out a good market for sugar and sugarcane bye-products.
Compared to other expenses relating to sugar production, sugar processing took up a lion’s share of expenditure. Therefore, they have to reduce the processing cost too. One way to reduce the processing cost was to enhance the quality of sugar produced as it would fetch good rates, both in India and abroad. By producing sugar of different varieties, they can realise better prices in the international market. This would increase their income, the professor said.
S Nijalingappa Sugar Institute Director R B Khandagave said, Karnataka stood third in sugarcane production after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. In sugar yield, it stood second in the country. Of the 72 sugar factories, 60 sugar mills that were functioning in 2013-14 had processed 38.314 million tonnes of sugarcane, resulting in 4.205 million tonnes of sugar.
He called upon the sugar factories to take best advantage from selling the by-products, bagasse and molasses and improve their revenue.
