Sugar season starts on a positive note

The sugar season 2006-07 (October-September) has begun on a promising note, with record sugar production in the opening month.

The country has produced 3.06 lakh tonne sugar in October, which is the highest for the month over the past 10-plus years.

Sugar output stood at 3.06 lakh tonne on October 31, a growth of more than 14 per cent over the last October figure of 2.67 lakh tonne.

And of this, one half has been produced by co-operative sugar factories and the other by private sugar mills.

According to the National Federation of Co-operative Sugar Factories, co-operative sugar mills produced 6.44 lakh tonne sugar as on November 15.

The co-operative sector has seen 6.5 per cent increase in recovery at 7.45 per cent this October against 6.99 per cent in the same month last year.

While in November 2005, the country's output stood at 19.28 lakh tonne sugar, the production, this November, is expected to cross the 25 lakh tonne mark.

However, sentiment in the sugar market is not bullish as prices "� both domestic and international "� have been declining.

Prices in the spot market have fallen by Rs 50-70 to Rs 1,650-1,700 a quintal over the past week.

In the futures market too, sugar prices have been on a downhill.

On the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange, M-sugar for December delivery dropped to Rs 1,752 from Rs 1,779 a quintal on last Monday, while the same for January delivery has slumped from Rs 1,756 to Rs 1,733 a quintal.

While the country is expected to produce about 23 million tonne sugar in the current season compared with 19.1 million tonne last season, its annual consumption is 19 million tonne.