Government estimates domestic sugar production to be 330 lakh tonnes
29-Oct-2024 01:00 PM
New Delhi. The Union Food Ministry has estimated the production of 330 lakh tonnes of sugar during the current marketing season (October-September) of 2024-25, which is sufficient to meet the potential domestic consumption of 290 lakh tonnes and the requirement of 40-45 lakh tonnes of sugar for ethanol production.
According to official sources, since the condition of sugarcane crop is very good, the production of sugar in the current season will definitely be better than the previous season.
It is worth noting that in view of the possibility of reduction in sugarcane production during the 2023-24 season, the government had drastically reduced the quantity of sugar for the production of ethanol and also banned the commercial export of sugar.
This ban is still in force, but sugar mills have been given free hand to use sugarcane in ethanol production. According to rough estimates, 40-45 lakh tonnes of sugar can be used in the production of ethanol in the current season of 2024-25.
An official of the Food Ministry says that the sugar production scenario looks much better than last year because this time there was very good rain in the major sugarcane producing areas during the southwest monsoon season.
At present, an initial estimate of 330 lakh tonnes of sugar production is being made. During the current year, the sugarcane production area increased slightly as compared to last year to 57.68 lakh hectares. The inflation rate in sugar has remained single digit for the last several years.
In the marketing season of 2023-24, domestic production of about 320 lakh tonnes of sugar was done, which was slightly less than the production of 328 lakh tonnes in the 2022-23 season.
According to official sources, when the new marketing season formally started on October 1, 2024, the domestic industry had a backlog of 79 lakh tonnes of sugar, which was 21 lakh tonnes more than the available stock of 58 lakh tonnes on October 1, 2023.
40-45 lakh tonnes of sugar will be required to produce 400-450 crore liters of ethanol from sugarcane juice and B heavy molasses etc., which will help in ensuring 18 percent ethanol blending in petrol.