Jaggery units make a beeline for MP

Madhya Pradesh is emerging as a major jaggery hub, with a large number of units shifting base to cash in on the opportunities in the state.

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar and Tamil Nadu are the leading sugarcane-growing states, which are also the major jaggery-producing centres in the country.

Of late, farmers in Madhya Pradesh have started focusing more on sugarcane despite low realisation. The crop under sugarcane area in the state shot up dramatically during the current season at 76,000 hectares compared with 50,000 hectares last year.

A net consumer till recently, Madhya Pradesh possesses hardly 10 to 11 cane-crushing mills of medium to lower sizes (with an average crushing capacity of 5,000 tcd). This has resulted in a chunk of good-quality cane left uncrushed.

Sugarcane with a sugar recovery level lower than 10.5 per cent is supplied for jaggery production, cane juice and sowing for the next season, while the crop above this level is supplied to sugar mills for crushing into sugar. About 12 to 15 per cent of the country's total cane output is supplied to jaggery production, with about 75 per cent going to sugar mills. However, in Madhya Pradesh, higher-recovery canes are transported to jaggery units in the absence of an adequate number of sugar mills. According to Arun Khandelwal, president of the Muzaffarnagar-based Federation of Gur Traders, Madhya Pradesh has increased the cane feed by 37 per cent this year, which poses a threat for UP-based jaggery units.

Approximately 130 small units have shifted from western Uttar Pradesh to ready for the new sugarcane season beginning in mid-October. As a result, regions in western Uttar Pradesh, bordering Madhya Pradesh, such as the Agra-Kanpur belt and the Jhanshi belt, are likely to be badly hit this season.

Denying any change in business, Khandelwal said jaggery producers requires only Rs 1 lakh of capital to commence production, while setting up a sugar mill required crores of rupees. The country produces about 100 lakh tonnes of jaggery every year. But this year, the production is estimated to rise by at least 10 per cent.

"We are anticipating the repetition of the memorable year, 1977-78, when the sugar price slipped to Rs 1.60 a kg from Rs 6 a kg and the jaggery price weakened from Rs 40 per 40 kg to Rs 18 per 40 kg on bumper cane production," Khandelwal lamented.