Sugar production down 18 percent to 248.50 lakh tonnes
02-Apr-2025 11:34 AM
New Delhi. Due to the huge shortage of sugarcane, sugar mills are being closed at a rapid pace and as a result, the sugarcane crushing season is likely to end soon.
Data from the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, the apex body of cooperative sugar mills, shows that during the first half of the current marketing season i.e. from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, the total production of sugar at the national level declined to 248.50 lakh tonnes,
which was 18 percent or 54 lakh tonnes less than the production of 302.50 lakh tonnes during the same period of the 2023-24 season.
During the second fortnight, a decline of 6 lakh tonnes was recorded in sugar production as compared to the first fortnight of March 2025.
According to the Federation, about 234 sugar mills were closed across the country in March 2025 alone.
Including this, sugarcane crushing has ended in a total of 420 units at the national level so far in the current marketing season.
In comparison, only 331 units were closed during October 2023 to March 2024. On March 31, 2025, sugarcane crushing was going on in 113 sugar mills of the country, whereas 204 sugar mills were operational in the same period last year.
The interesting fact is that last year the number of sugar mills closed in March had reached 257, but this time from the very beginning the mills are struggling hard to get adequate quantity of sugarcane.
The Federation has estimated the net production of sugar to decline to 259 lakh tonnes in the current marketing season of 2024-25, which is 60 lakh tonnes or 19 percent less than the production of 319 lakh tonnes in the 2023-24 season.
194 sugar mills have been closed in Maharashtra and sugarcane crushing is going on in only 6 units. There, 80.10 lakh tonnes of sugar was produced till March 31. Similarly, in Karnataka, after the closure of 75 units,
only 4 mills are left operational and the state recorded a production of 39.90 lakh tonnes of sugar till March 31. In Uttar Pradesh, 87.70 lakh tonnes of sugar has been produced and some units are still crushing sugarcane.