New Delhi: Sugar production in the current sugar season is expected to be 13% higher than the previous sugar season. As per the revised estimate, production of sugar in the current sugar season is estimated to be about 350 lakh tons after discounting the diversion of 35 lakh tons of sugar for ethanol production. Officials said the production is sufficient to meet the domestic consumption of 278 lakh tons. There was carry over stock of about 85 lakh tons at the beginning of the current sugar season (October-September 2022 period).
Talking about the comfortable position of sugar stock in the country, officials said even after the likely export of about 95 lakh tons of sugar, the closing stock for the current sugar season at the end of September this year is likely to be more than 60 lakh tons. "The availability of sugar in the country is sufficient to meet the domestic requirement. As such, there will be smooth availability of sugar and the sugar prices in the domestic market are expected to remain stable at reasonable levels," said the government.
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In the current sugar season, sugar mills are expected to make a payment of Rs one lakh crore to cane farmers in the current season. Government is also encouraging sugar mills to divert excess sugarcane to ethanol which is blended with petrol, which not only serves as a green fuel but also saves foreign exchange on account of crude oil import.
Ethanol blending
In the last three sugar seasons - 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 about 3.37 lakh tons, 9.26 lakh tons and 22 lakh tons of sugar has been diverted to ethanol. In the current sugar season 2021-22, about 35 lakh tons of sugar is estimated to be diverted. Officials have set a target of diverting nearly 60 lakh tons per year to ethanol in the next two-three years which would address the problem of excess sugarcane and help in making timely payment to sugarcane farmers.
Source of revenue
Sugar mills and distilleries have earned nearly Rs 53,000 crore in the last seven years from sale of ethanol to oil marketing companies. This year, sugar mills are expected to earn more than Rs 18,000 crore from sale of ethanol to oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil and BPCL.
Sugarcane arrears
In the previous sugar season, sugar mills were able to clear 99.5% of sugarcane arrears to farmers by April 18 this year as they paid about Rs 92,480 crores as against the cane dues of Rs 92,938 crores. In the current sugar season, sugar mills have so far cleared more than 80% of sugarcane arrears against the total dues of Rs 91,468 crores. According to official estimates, this year sugar mills are likely to make payment of Rs one lakh crore to sugarcane farmers.
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