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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Sugar production poised to hit record low in Tamil Nadu in the October 2017 to September 2018 season

Sugar production in Tamil Nadu in the coming season (October 2017 to September 2018) could hit an all-time low as sugarcane planting lags on an extended dry spell.
Farmers have cut back on sugarcane planting with the continued drought in the State, leaving sugar mills staring at a capacity utilisation of less than one-third their total installed capacity, estimated at about 30 lakh tonnes.
At peak production, Tamil Nadu’s output was about 25 lakh tonnes about five years back, when mills supplied sugar up to the Kolkata market, pointed out a senior executive in a mill.
According to industry sources, sugar output in the coming season could drop below 10 lakh tonnes, which is an unprecedented low. This is even lower than the State’s annual consumption of sugar estimated at about 14 lakh tonnes.
According to industry data, the total cane acreage registered with the private sector sugar mills up to February 2017 for the coming season is about 84,000 acres, against 100,000 acres in the similar period last year.
New planting of cane has dropped by less than half, with jsut 19,600 acres (43,500 acres) registered. It is the ratoon crop, the successive offshoot after planted cane is harvested, that accounts for the lion’s share of the acreage at 64,700 acres (57,100 acres).
In the current season (2016-17), the total sugar production in the State up to February is 6.72 lakh tonnes (5.30 lakh tonnes) with the private sector accounting for 4.55 lakh tonnes (3.52 lakh tonnes) and the cooperative sector 2.17 lakh tonnes (1.78 lakh tonnes). Sugar mills in Tamil Nadu have speeded up crushing as they are worried that the dry spell could result in the crops withering.
The mills have started crushing even immature sugarcane rather than lose standing crops in the field as the summer heat builds up. Though production up to last month was higher than that of the previous year it will peter out by the end of the season with total production at about 12 lakh tonnes against last year’s 14 lakh tonnes.
According to sources, the situation is similar across the major sugar production centres in the South. Karnataka, for instance, has had a ‘disastrous’ 2016-17 season with production dropping by half over the previous season to about 21 lakh tonnes of sugar. But it is set to improve 15-20 per cent in the coming season over the current season’s production.
Production in 2016-17 in Maharashtra is estimated at about 42 lakh tonnes with predictions for the coming season ranging from 55 lakh tonnes to 75 lakh tonnes.

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