Sugar output in Punjab may touch 4.9 mn quintals this season

The increase in area under sugarcane, said officials, would be the main reason behind the projected increase in output

Sugar production in Punjab could see a rise of 14 per cent in the current crushing season over last year's. The current crushing season, likely to commence from the middle of this month, could see output in the state touching 49 lakh quintals (4.9 million quintals) compared to 43 lakh quintals(4.3 million quintals) last year, according to state government officials.

The increase in area under sugarcane crop, said officials, would be the main reason behind the increase in output.

Speaking to Business Standard, senior officials said, "This year, the total estimated area under cane cultivation in the state was 96,000 hectares, while last year it was 83,000 hectares, an increase of 16 per cent over last year. According to provisional estimates the overall production of the cane would be 670 lakh quintals in the current season. Out of the total, 540 lakh quintal would be available for crushing. Considering the data, we expect sugar output to touch 49 lakh quintal in the current crushing season."

It might be recalled here that last year the total cane availability for crushing in the state was 474 lakh quintals and the total sugar output of the state was 43 lakh quintals. At present, 16 sugar mills are operational in the state, of which nine were in co-operative and seven in the private sector. The crushing capacity of 9 co-operative sugar mills was 15,766 TCD (tonnes crushed per day) and 34,000 TCD of 7 private mills, thereby totaling up to 49,766 TCD.

Further, it may be noted that in the past few years, the state has witnessed a substantial increase in sugar productions from 18.20 lakh quintals in 2009-10 to 43 lakh quintals in 2012-13, the increase in area under sugarcane clearly indicates that the state government is putting a lot of thrust on diversification. Insiders said the government initiative to offer remunerative price for sugarcane, in order to promote diversification and encourage farmers to take sugarcane cultivation, has yielded results, which led to increase in area under cultivation.

Further, in order to encourage farmers and to promote diversification, the state government has fixed the State Agreed Price (SAP) of advanced, medium and late variety of sugarcane at Rs 290, Rs 280 and Rs 275, respectively, for the crushing season of 2013-14. Last year the same was at Rs 250, Rs 240 and Rs 235 per quintal, respectively.