Sugar production up by 14% till Mar 15

The country's sugar production has increased by 14% to 21.16 million tonne till March 15 in the current marketing year that started October last year, according to industry data.

Sugar production of India, the world's second largest producer and biggest consumer, stood at 18.57 million tonne in the year-ago period, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement today.

"ISMA still maintains that the sugar production will be 26 million tonne in the current season 2011-12," it added.

The Food Ministry has pegged sugar output at about 25.2 million tonne for 2011-12 marketing year (October-September).

Maharashtra, the country's largest sugar producing state, has produced 7.3 million tonne till March 15, which is 13% higher than the last year. Sugar production of Uttar Pradesh is also up by about 13% to 6 million tonne.

The southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have also reported higher output of 3.2 million tonne and 1.08 million tonne, respectively.

As against 419 sugar mills which were operational on March 15 last year, 476 mills are operational as on March 15, 2012.

Considering the opening balance of 6.8 million tonne and production of 26 million tonne, ISMA urged the government to immediately allow further exports to reduce the surplus sugar which is estimated to be over 2-2.5 million tonne.

"Since demand in international market is more for raw sugar, the permission should be given by end of March 2012 so that mills could produce raw sugar before they shut their operations expected by mid-April or so," it said.

ISMA noted that further exports would help in paying cane price arrears, which have mounted to unprecedented levels.

The government has so far allowed exports of 2 million tonne of sugar in two equal tranches. India had exported 2.6 million tonne of sweetener in the 2010-11 marketing year.