The
Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) revealed
their first advance estimates for the 2013-14 sugar season – 250
lakh tonne – based on satellite images of the country's sugarcane
yield in August 2013.
As
per these images, the sugarcane acreage available in the country for
crushing in the sugar season 2013-14 would be around 52.89 lakh
hectare, which is almost nine per cent higher than the agriculture
ministry's initial estimate (48.53 lakh hectare).
The
satellite survey was vetted with field visits and reports to get a
more accurate picture of the cane acreage for the ensuing sugar
season starting from October 2013.
Besides
the acreage, several parameters – including cane yield, drawal
percentage, recovery, expected factory operations, etc. – were
taken into consideration. These, coupled with the unprecedented heavy
rainfall, boosted the sugar production.
Plans
for marketing year
When
quizzed about the plans for the marketing year 2013-14 (which
commenced in October 2013 and will conclude in September 2014),
Abinash
Verma, director, ISMA, said, “At the beginning of October, the
opening stock for the 2013-14 sugar season was 86 lakh tonne. Last
year, it was approximately 62 lakh tonne.”
He
stated that the opening stock of sugar this year was enough to cater
to the consumption requirement of four-and-a-half months, and added
that the mills would start crushing sugar at the end of the month to
cater to the demand for the remainder of the season.
When
quizzed whether any fluctuations in sugar prices are expected this
year, Verma said, “The sugar prices are expected to soften further
due to the surplus sugar production. India is expected to hit a
surplus in the sugar yield for the fourth consecutive year. There is
no shortfall in the sugar production.”
When
quizzed about India's plans to export sugar, he said, “There are
plans to export 20-30 lakh tonne sugar in the 2013-14 sugar season
due to the surplus production. However, the government should provide
some export incentives to the industry to make exports more
remunerative for the industry.”
The
state-wise sugarcane production estimates are as follows:
Maharashtra
The
sugarcane acreage is reported to be around 9.4 lakh hectare, which is
almost similar to that of 2012-13.
No
substantial yield enhancement is expected over last year, due to a
larger sugarcane acreage under ratoon crop than the usual.
While
it is slightly early to estimate the sugar recovery, it is estimated
that it would be around last year’s level of 11.44 per cent.
Taking
all parameters into consideration, ISMA projected that the state
would produce about 78 lakh tonne, which is almost similar to last
year's output (about 80 lakh tonne).
Uttar
Pradesh
This
year, Uttar Pradesh showed an acreage of around 25.13 lakh hectare,
which was the same as the data released by the agriculture ministry,
but higher by about 3.6% the last year’s acreage according to ISMA.
However,
ISMA is expecting a slightly lower yield than last year on account of
lesser millable sugarcane per hectare availability due to excess
rains, which affected the late sown sugarcane plants this year.
Therefore,
77 lakh tonne sugar production is expected from the northern state in
the sugar season 2013-14.
Karnataka
Sugar
production in the southern state is expected to remain at almost the
same level as last year (i.e. around 34 lakh tonne).
However,
a major decline is only expected from Tamil Nadu, which may give 15
per cent lower production of 16.4 lakh tonne, as compared to last
year’s production of about 19 lakh tonne sugar.
ISMA
would be releasing the preliminary estimates based on satellite
images and field reports of actual harvesting, yields and sugar
recovery actually achieved in January 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment