Sugarcane crushing gathers momentum in UP

Functional mills count nearing 100. 

The sugarcane crushing is gathering momentum in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s second-largest sugar producer, with about 95 sugar mills already functioning. 

Most of these mills belong to private sector, which accounts for almost 102 mills in UP of the 128 units expected to participate in crushing. Most of the mills, which have started belong to western UP. 

The remaining mills are likely to start crushing by December 10, official sources told Business Standard. 

The delay was partly due to late rainfall this year resulting in higher moisture content in cane, while the dispute over cane price was also to be blamed. 

On November 2, UP had announced a record hike of Rs 40/quintal in SAP to Rs 205-210/quintal for common and early varieties respectively. The industry had expressed its inability to pay at this level due to lower realisation of sugar. The industry maintained it could only pay at last year’s SAP level of around Rs 165/quintal. 

The industry had approached Allahabad High Court contending that UP had no power to fix SAP after the fixation of fair and remunerative price (FRP) by the Centre, which stands at Rs 139/quintal for this season. The matter is sub-judice. 

The crushing delay had prompted chief minister Mayawati to issue stern warning to mills. Recently, action was also taken against some mills for the delay. 

According to official figures, so far mills had crushed nearly 21 million quintals of cane producing 1.7 million quintals of sugar. “The sugar recovery percentage is around 8.1 and is expected to touch 9.5 per cent as the crushing season advances,” a sugar department official said on anonymity. 

The sugar production target has been cut to 6.1 million tonnes from 6.32 million tonnes due to damage from flood to cane crop. Last year, UP had produced 5.2 million tonnes of sugar over higher crushing ratio. 

Meanwhile, the industry expressed confidence the UP sugar production would be over 6.1 million tonnes, however, the recovery percentage would be lower at 9.2. During 2010-11, UP cane acreage and production have been estimated at 2.10 million hectares and 124 million tonnes respectively.