424 sugar mills still operational for sugarcane crushing

01-Dec-2025 06:10 PM

Pune. The latest report from the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories shows that the number of sugar mills crushing sugarcane across the country increased to 424 in the two months of October-November this year, an increase of 42, or 11 percent, compared to 382 last year.

During the period under review, the number of operational sugar mills increased from 124 to 170 in Maharashtra, from 72 to 75 in Karnataka, but the number fell from 118 to 116 in Uttar Pradesh.

Last year, a total of 192 sugar mills in Maharashtra began crushing sugarcane, but this time, due to some special reasons, 22 units have not been able to obtain licenses to crush sugarcane. Meanwhile, in Karnataka, a dispute arose between sugarcane farmers and sugar mills over prices, but that has now ended.

In addition, crushing of sugarcane has commenced in 14 units in Gujarat, 1 in Andhra Pradesh, 6 in Bihar, 7 in Haryana, 15 in Madhya Pradesh, 3 in Punjab, 4 in Tamil Nadu, 3 in Telangana, 7 in Uttarakhand, and 3 in other states.

A total of 486.13 lakh tonnes of sugarcane was crushed in 424 operational sugar mills nationally as of November 30, 2025, and a total of 41.35 lakh tonnes of sugar was produced with an average recovery rate of 8.51 percent.

As of November 30 this year, Maharashtra's sugar mills crushed 213.38 lakh tonnes of sugarcane, while Uttar Pradesh recorded 151.61 lakh tonnes, Karnataka 93.18 lakh tonnes, and Gujarat 10.59 lakh tonnes.

The remaining states each crushed less than 5 lakh tonnes of sugarcane. The only exception was Uttarakhand, which crushed 5.26 lakh tonnes of sugarcane.