Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has predicted that the sugar production in India will increase to about 13% at 29.5 million tonnes from its second advance estimate of 26.1 million tonnes.
ISMA in its statement said, “Considering the substantially higher sugarcane yields per hectare reported from the State of Maharashtra and North Karnataka, members of ISMA agreed that there is a need to review the second advance estimates of sugar production made on 18th January 2018.”
The regulatory body claimed that the yields from Maharashtra and Karnataka were highest. “In the last year when the sugar production fell to 203 lakh tons for the whole country and 42 lakh tons in Maharashtra and 21.6 lac tons in Karnataka due to drought therein, the yields from both of these two states were about 60 tons/ha. However, the average yields in the current season from these two States reported to be around 100 tons/ha and 91 tons/ha, respectively,” it said.
“Accordingly, sugar production of 295 lakh tons in the current season will be 45 lac tons higher than the 250 lakh tons of estimated domestic consumption,” said ISMA adding.