Almost all the sugarcane factories have started cane crushing for the season. With crushing activity picking up, industry players estimate that around 100 lakh tonnes are likely to be crushed in 2009-10, while government has pegged the figure at 107 lakh tonnes.
Gujarat has total 17 sugar factories run on co-operative basis. "Sugar factories have started crushing and they are operating at fully capacity. Approximately, 25 lakh tonne of cane has already gone into crushing so far. Cane crushing is expected to increase at 100 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, which was around 96 lakh tonnes in 2008-09," said Mansinh Patel, president, Federation of Gujarat State Co-operative Sugar Factories (FGSCSF).
According to government estimates, nearly 107 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane would be available for crushing in 2009-10. In fact, government had predicted a cane crop of 113 lakh metric tonnes but later on made it more conservative by trimming the estimate to 107 lakh tonnes. In 2008-09, close to 99 lakh metric tonnes sugarcane was crushed.
"Following higher prices for sugarcane last year, farmers turned to this crop leading to higher sugarcane acreage in the state at 1.57 lakh hectares, which stood at 1.47 lakh hectares. This will result into higher cane production in the state," said GK Fakir, director of sugar, government of Gujarat.
In the wake of erratic rainfall this year, some of the industry players have expressed concern over recovery ratio (sugar produced from 1 tonne sugarcane). "Recovery is likely to be lower from the month of February. Sugarcane yield was affected due to scanty rains, which may affect the production of sugar in the state," said Dilip Bhakta, chairman, Madhi Sugar Factory. It may be mentioned here that Bardoli Sugar and Madhi Sugar have crushed 3 lakh tonnes and 2 lakh tonnes of cane till now.
However, government expects the sugar production in the state to increase to 11.57 lakh tonnes this fiscal following rise in area under sugarcane crop. Gujarat has witnessed sugar production of 10.20 lakh tonnes in 2008-09.
It may be mentioned here that Bardoli Sugar and Madhi Sugar have crushed 3 lakh tonnes and 2 lakh tonnes of cane till now.
