Marathwada sugar mills open in full force, Kolhapur mills end operations for the season

The divisions of Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Nanded have, by far, seen very few mill closures so far. Of the 27 mills in season in Ahmednagar (consisting of the districts of Ahmednagar, Nashik and other parts of north Maharashtra,) only one has ended crushing, while five and seven mills in Aurangabad (including districts of Aurangabad, Jalna and Beed) and Nanded (Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Osmanabad and Latur), respectively, have halted operations.

The trend, sugar analyst Vijay Autade, said was because of the exponential growth in sugar area in Marathwada and an increase in crushing capacity in the Kolhapur mills. “Even a district like Solapur that had reported crushing of just about 35 lt of cane last season has around 200 lt of cane,” he said.

The traditional cane district, on the other hand, has reported just about 10-12 per cent increase in area while the mills in the area have increased their capacity to cope with the supposed-increase in production. “Thus, the Kolhapur mills will all be closing down by the first week of April while those in Marathwada, will continue well in to the third week or more,” he said.

Rohit Pawar, the vice president of India Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the apex body of private millers, said cane availability in Marathwada has helped the mills to increase operations. “Timely rains also helped us get better crop,” he said. Till Tuesday, Maharashtra reported production of 99.43 lt of sugar and 892.5 lt of cane had been crushed. It is estimated that by the end of the season, 980 lt of cane would be crushed and the final sugar production figure will be around 105 lt.

While increased sugar production might be good news for consumers, it has upset the economics of the millers, most of whom have started defaulting in the payment of fair and remunerative price (FRP) to growers.

As of March 15, the state reported Rs 2,280.60 crore of arrears, as against the Rs 17,004.92 crore to be paid to the growers, mills have paid around Rs 14,988.43 crore.