Punjab expects 12% rise in sugar output this season

According to state government estimates, sugar output is likely to touch 4.25 mn quintals in the current crushing season

Punjab is expecting to register a 12 per cent increase in sugar output in the current crushing season from last year's number. A senior state government official said better recovery, coupled with availability of sugarcane for crushing, compared to the previous year, was the main reason behind increase in output.

According to state government estimates, sugar output is likely to touch 4.25 million quintals in the current crushing season, an increase of about 12 per cent over the past year.

Speaking to Business Standard, the official said, according to provisional estimates, the overall production of sugarcane would be 56.73 million quintals in the current season. Of the total, 46 million quintals would be available for crushing. "Considering the data, we expect sugar output would touch 4.25 million quintals in the current crushing season," the official added.

Further, the total estimated area under sugarcane cultivation in the state was 82,000 hectares this year, while in the past year it was 80,000 hectares. In the past year, the total cane availability for crushing was 42.7 million quintals and the total sugar output was at 3.8 million quintals.

In the past few years, the state had witnessed a substantial increase in sugar production - 1.82 million quintals in 2009-10 and 3.02 million quintals in 2010-11.

Also, to encourage farmers and to promote diversification, the state government had fixed the State Agreed Price (SAP) of advanced, medium and late variety of sugarcane at Rs 250, Rs 240 and Rs 235 a quintals, respectively, for the crushing season of 2012-13. For the 2011-12 crushing season, the SAP of advanced, medium and late variety was fixed at Rs 230, Rs 225 and Rs 220 a quintals.

At present, 16 sugar mills were operational in the state, of which nine were in cooperative and seven in private sector. The crushing capacity of nine cooperative sugar mills was 15,766 TCD ( tonnes crushed per day) and 34,000 TCD of seven private mills, thereby, totaling to 49,766 TCD.