Early cane crushing hits sugar recovery in state

Commencement of early crushing of sugarcane by sugar mills in Karnataka is likely to result in drop of both cane output and recovery of sugar during the current sugar season in the state.

The mills, fearing shortage of cane this year, have started crushing of cane as early as August this year compared to normal commencement in the months of October and November.

This has forced the farmers to harvest the crop early in tune with the requirement of sugar mills and as a result the industry is getting the immature cane for crushing.

According to sugar industry sources, due to the crushing of immature cane the recovery of sugar may come down by 1.5 per cent. Normally, the mills in north Karnataka produce 115 kg of sugar per one tonne of cane crushed and mills in southern Karnataka manage to get 105 kg per tonne.

However, this year, the yield is likely to come down to 100 kg in northern Karnataka and 90 kg in southern Karnataka. The net result of this would be a loss of about Rs 240 per every tonne of cane crushed, said Jagadeesh S Gudagunti, president, South India Sugar Mills’ Association (SISMA).

Assuming that sugar mills crush 19 million tonnes of cane this year, the loss due to low recovery of sugar is likely to result into a net loss of Rs 456 crore during the year 2008-09.

“It is very unfortunate that there is no unity and discipline among the members of SISMA. Despite knowing the ill effects of early crushing most of the mills have commenced crushing in the months of August and September. Harvesting during these months is very unwise and unscientific, causing loss, both to farmers and sugar mills,” he said.

Gudagunti said the sugar mills have resorted to early crushing this year following the fear of shortage of cane for the current year. “Due to scanty rains in the month of June this year, during which period there is a fast growth of sugarcane crop and sucrose contents in it, the growth of cane was affected and yield per acre fell from 50 metric tonnes to 25 metric tonnes all over Karnataka and Maharashtra. By end of the sugarcane year this is likely to result into a drop in the total cane output to an extent of 40 per cent at 19 million tonnes compared to the last cane year,” he said.

He said the early harvest of cane will also affect sprouting of ratoons (a shoot from the root of a plant which results into second crop) and thereby affect the next season crop also.

Due to likely shortage of sugarcane this year, factories in Karnataka have declared higher cane price compared to previous seasons. In north Karnataka factories have announced Rs 1,200 per tonne ex-factory price in addition to Rs 250-300 for harvesting and transportation, while in south, mills will pay Rs 1,100 per tonne ex-factory.

“Mills announced higher price to farmers in anticipation of higher prices for sugar in the coming days. However, the prices of ex-factory sugar is currently hovering around Rs 1,650 per quintal. Though the prices this year are nearly 26 per cent higher than last year’s the mills are likely to post losses,” Gudagunti added.