This season,more sugarcane than estimated may be crushed

In what may come as a sweet surprise for people reeling under high sugar prices,the state may see around 510 lakh metric tonnes...

In what may come as a sweet surprise for people reeling under high sugar prices,the state may see around 510 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of sugarcane being crushed in the ongoing sugarcane crushing season,up from an initial estimate of 410 LMT. This is expected to lead to a recovery of around 57 LMT sugar.

Senior officials from the state cooperation department said that inadequate rain had led to estimates being drawn at 410 LMT on 8 lakh hectares across the state. However,unseasonal rain in October and November last year revived hopes for a better produce. Till February 10 sugar factories in Pune had crushed 134.5 LMT of sugarcane,followed by Kolhapur at 102.84 LMT. The Pune and Kolhapur divisions are likely to crush 220 LMT and 130.4 LMT respectively by the end of the season.

Sugar factories in Ahmednagar division,which is expected to see crushing of 65 LMT by the season end,have crushed 54.33 LMT so far,while Nanded,which has crushed 40.58 LMT,is likely to crush a total of 60 LMT in the ongoing season. The Aurangabad division has crushed 23.88 LMT,while the figures for Amravati and Nagpur are 2.22 LMT and 0.27 LMT respectively.

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By February 10,sugar factories had crushed 358.62 LMT of sugarcane and recovered 397.18 lakh quintals of sugar at a recovery of 11.08 per cent.

In 2009- 10,Maharashtra had 162 cooperative,34 private sugar factories with a daily crushing capacity of 4.83 LMT. This season,109 cooperatives and 29 private factories are operational. With greater availability of sugarcane,the crushing season is likely to extend till April,officials said.

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