Uttar Pradesh (UP) sugar mills have started shutting down early this year due to cane shortage and high diversion to the gur producing units. Bajaj Hindusthan, the country’s biggest sugar producer, has stopped crushing operations at two of its mills.
Pratappur and Rudauli, two of Bajaj’s mills, have closed during the last week, according to a company official. Notably, both have closed with lower crushing compared with last year.
Crushing at Pratappur was nearly 19 per cent lower compared with last year while Rudauli’s crushing declined by over 13 per cent. Birla Sugar will be shutting down operations at its Hata mill on Wednesday, said CB Patodia, advisor.
UP is the country’s second biggest sugar producing state after Maharashtra and leading companies like Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini and Triveni Engineering have all their operations in the state.
Patodia, who is also the president of the UP Sugar Mills Association, said a number of mills will shut down by month-end since sugarcane availability is low and mills are operating at 60-70 per cent capacity.
Ajit Shriram, director, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd, said the company’s mills would start shutting down operations from February 15 onwards. The company runs four mills in UP. “We are faced with acute shortage of sugarcane due to diversion. Our Haryana unit has been operating at just 30 per cent capacity for few weeks,” added Shriram.
Most mills in the state have also registered a lower recovery this year due to early harvesting of plant crop and lack of winter rain. According to industry estimates, sugar production in UP this year will be close to 4 million tonnes compared with 4.05 million tonnes last year.
Owing to the acute sugarcane shortage, the mills have been paying Rs 260-265 a quintal for sugarcane against the State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 165 a quintal.
