ISMA today revised downwards sugar production estimates by a million tonne to around 27 MT for the marketing year starting next month due to poor monsoons in producing states like Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The Indian Sugar Mills Association had projected in July that sugar production in India, world's second largest producer, would be around 28 million tonnes in the next 2015-16 marketing year(October-September).
Despite downward revision of production estimates, the country's sugar output would be higher than the domestic demand for the sixth year in a row.
"...Considering further poor rainfall during SW monsoon in July and also during August in Maharashtra and Karnataka, ISMA has revised its estimated sugar production in 2015-16 sugar season to around 27 million tonnes," ISMA said in a statement.
For the 2014-15 marketing year, production is likely to be 28.31 MT. Domestic consumption and exports are expected at 25.1 MT and 1.1 MT respectively, leaving the closing stock at 9.6 million tonnes.
"On the basis of the September 2015 satellite images, ISMA has estimated the total cane acreage at 52.84 lakh hectares, which is just 0.4 per cent less than 2014-15 sugar season," the statement added.
State-wise, ISMA has estimated downward revision of production for Maharashtra at 9 MT from 9.7 MT in the July projection. In the marketing year 2014-15, the state is all set to produce 10.5 MT.
In Uttar Pradesh, ISMA has revised production estimates from 7.35 MT to 7.5 MT in 2015-16. In the current marketing year, the state has produced 7.10 MT.
"During 2015-16, sugarcane acreage in Karnataka is seemed to have increased marginally. However, keeping in view the erratic monsoon in some parts of North Karnataka, yield is expected to be lower in 2015-16. Therefore, it is estimated that about 4.6 million tonnes of sugar will be produced by the mills in Karnataka, i.E, 4,00,000 tonnes lower than the sugar production in 2014-15," ISMA said.
Tamil Nadu is expected to produce around 1.35 MT of sugar in 2015-16, which will be about 1,00,000 tonnes higher than 2014-15 marketing year.
Production from Gujarat is expected to be around 1.15 MT whereas from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it is expected to be around 8,50,000 tonnes, almost same as last year.
"Sugar production in Punjab and Haryana may go down slightly due to poor monsoon and drop in sugar yields/recovery etc. The sugar production in the case of other states like Bihar, Uttarakhand etc is estimated to be almost at the same level as that of last year mainly because cane acreage is almost similar," the association said.
