Sugar output down 4.5%, says Isma

2.5% less sugarcane was crushed in the 2012-13 crop season

India produced 25.1 million tonnes (mt) of sugar in the crop season ended September 30, about 4.5 per cent lower than in the previous crop year, owing to low rainfall in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in 2012, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) said on Monday.

It added 2.5 per cent less sugarcane was crushed in the 2012-13 crop season, while the all-India average recovery rate stood at 10.03 per cent, compared with 10.25 per cent in the previous year. Most analysts and officials feel in the 2013-14 season, sugar production would exceed 25 mt, owing to good rains in the key producing states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

According to the first official estimates for the 2013-14 crop season, sugarcane production is expected to stand at 341.7 mt, just 0.82 per cent more than last year.

Isma said compared to 2011-12, Maharashtra's production in 2012-13 was 11 per cent lower, while Uttar Pradesh produced 7.3 per cent more. Together, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh account for about 80 per cent of the country's sugar production..