Move aimed at preventing cane from reaching mills
Sugar mills in Karnataka have been asked to defer crushing for the new sugar season commencing October 2009 by one month. The direction, issued by the South Indian Sugar Mills Association (SISMA), comes after early commencement of crushing by a couple of mills in the state.
The two mills, NSL and Chamundeshwari Sugar Mills, resorted to early crushing due to shortage of cane in the current sugar season ending September 2009. The cane output has seen a decline of around 42 per cent to 15.3 million tonnes compared with the previous year. For the next sugar season (October 2009 to September 2010) also, the output in Karnataka is estimated to grow just 10-12 per cent to around 17 million tonnes.
However, early crushing will lead to immature cane coming to the mills and a drop in both cane output and sugar recovery by the mills. In view of this, SISMA has asked mills in the state to start crushing for the next season from August 15 in south Karnataka and October 15 in north Karnataka.
The new direction is aimed at ensuring availability of matured cane to the mills. Normally, the sugarcane crop needed 12 months to mature whereas some mills in the state started crushing immature cane that had grown for only 8-10 months, said Jagadeesh S Gudagunti, president, SISMA.
“We have seen some mills commencing crushing due to shortage of cane in the state during the current year. The early start will give them extra quantity of cane through the year. But it will lead to crushing of immature cane and as a result of which the average acreage will drop to about 25 tonnes per acre from the normal output of 40-45 tonnes per acre. The recovery of sugar will also drop to around 9 per cent from the usual 10-11 per cent across the state. So, in the larger interest of the industry, we have asked the mills to defer crushing by at least one month,” Gudagunti told Business Standard.
For next year, sugar production in Karnataka is estimated at around 1.8 million tonnes, about 12.5 per cent more than the current year. The sugar recovery will be around 10.5 per cent. This year, Karnataka has seen cane cultivation on about 725,000 acres with average output of 30 tonnes per acre.
Crushing of immature cane will also result into lower fibre content in bagasse, a by-product of the sugar industry and a basic raw material for producing power by the mills. It would subsequently lead to drop in power produced by cogeneration mills, he said.
