Punjab may register 24% rise in sugar production
Punjab looks set to register a substantial increase in sugar production in the current crushing season compared to last year’s, thus likely to contradict initial estimates of a stagnant profile about 2011-12.
Having already produced 32.70 lakh quintals as on February 29, officials in the Cane Commissioner’s office maintain that the state’s sugar production appeared poised to touch 37.50 lakh quintals in the current season. That would be a 24 per cent increase over that of the previous year.
According to officials, the crushing season is over in the cooperative sector, but mills in the private sector are still running. Overall, there is an expectation of a “substantial increase” in the sugar production over last year. Punjab has 9 mills in the cooperative sector with an installed capacity of 15,766 TCD (tonnes crushed per day), besides seven in the private sector having installed capacity of 31,000 TCD.
A senior government official said the state’s sugar output in the current crusing season, considering the data and going by revised estimates, would touch 37.50 lakh quintals as compared to 30.20 lakh quintals during the corresponding period last year. “Also, the recovery is expected to be over 8.75 per cent,” he told Business Standard. “Last year, it was 8.80 per cent.”
Further, all the 16 sugar mills in the state have already crushed 369.30 lakh quintals against the earlier estimate of 351 lakh quintals. As for the total estimated area under sugarcane cultivation in Punjab, it is is 85,000 hectares this year, while last year it was 70,000 hectares.
Last year, too, the state witnessed a dramatic increase in the sugar output over the previous year. A senior official in the Cane Commissioner’s office said the state’s output of sugar touched 30.20 lakh quintal last year as compared to 18.20 lakh quintals during the season before that. “Furthermore, last year the crop was very good, as 16 sugar mills in the state crushed 343 lakh quintal of sugarcane. The recovery was 8.80 per cent,” he told this newspaper. “The increase in output is mainly because of an increase in the area, coupled with expectations of a better recovery (of sugar) as compared to last year.”
In order to assist the farmers, the Punjab government had fixed the state assured price (SAP) of advanced, medium and late variety of sugarcane at Rs 230, Rs 225 and Rs 220 per quintal for the crushing season of 2011-12. For the 2010-11 crushing season, the state had fixed the SAP of advanced, medium and late variety of Sugarcane at Rs 200, Rs 195 and Rs 190 per quintal.