At a time when India and the world markets are grappling with excess pharmaceutical sugar stocks, the area under sugarcane could decline more than 40 per cent in Maharashtra in the next season owing to drought. “Area under sugarcane in the state is likely to decline to 6-6.5 lakh hectares next year, ,” Vikas Deshmukh, director at Pune-based Vasantdada Sugar Institute, which is headed by former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, said on Tuesday. A former commissioner of agriculture of Maharashtra, Deshmukh was speaking at a conference organised by the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories in Pune. 

Along with ratoon crop, Maharashtra’s farmers plant cane in three different seasons. This year, the adsali variety of sugarcane has been planted on about 1,19,000 hectares, down 47 per cent from last year. 

In 2018, the variety, which grows in 18 months, was planted on about 2,24,000 hectares of the more than 1.15 million hectares of cane planted in the state. State government agencies have yet to compile data on planting of other varieties of sugarcane. 

Source: ISMA

The Uttar Pradesh government has opened an additional revenue stream of more than Rs 500 crore annually for pharma grade sugar mills by deciding to fix floor price of molasses sold to distillers under the levy scheme.

Molasses, a sugarcane byproduct, is extracted during the process of refined sugar production and is used by distillers in the manufacturing of country liquor. Under levy, UP sugar mills are obligated to supply 12.5 per cent of their molasses stock to distillers/country liquor manufacturers.
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“The state sugar mills will get additional revenue of Rs 500 crore based on the floor price of molasses. It could even be higher, if distillers bid at a higher price for their levy,” he said. Last year, the UP mills had even urged the state government to de-control the sale of molasses to allow the sugar ip companies to capitalise on ethanol price hike by the Centre.

Source: ISMA