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Journalism of Courage
Shri Gurudatt Sugars Limited mill in the Shirol taluka of Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district ended its crushing operation on March 15. The early end surprised its chairman and managing director Madhavrao Ghadge.
The mill, always on the top in sugar production, has ended the season after crushing 7.03 lakh tonnes of cane and producing 62,429 tonnes of sugar.
“While the cane area remained the same per hectare, the yield saw a drastic dip of 15-20 per cent. Also, sucrose content in the crop was low, affecting our production,” he said.
Ghadge, whose private mill is always at the forefront of higher sugar recovery (sugar produced versus cane crushed expressed as a percentage), said this was the case across the state. “While technically, we had seen higher areas under cane, the yield was low,” he said.
As the 2022-23 cane crushing season comes to a speedy end, mills in Maharashtra are placed with a paradox, which is a complete reversal of their situation last season. If the previous season was one of excess, this has been the exact opposite.
Initial estimates of a bumper season with mills slated to produce 138 lakh tonnes of sugar have fizzled out. The industry wonders if the final sugar production would exceed 110 lakh tonnes. With 157 of the 210 mills that had started their operation already calling it a day, most millers said the final sugar production would be around 109-110 lakh tonnes this year.
Bhairavnath B Thomabe, chairman and managing director of Latur-based Natural Sugar and Allied Industries Limited, pointed out that this drastic dip in sugar production was mainly due to the effect of weather pattern changes. “Rains were absent in June and July but rained heavily after October. This affected cane’s growth and sucrose formation,” said Thombare, whose mill is one of the few still operating in the Osmanabad district and has crushed 8.84 lakh tonnes of cane.
“There is a 20-30 tonne per hectare decrease in yield in Marathwada, Solapur and Ahmednagar. Weather variations and erratic changes in rainfall patterns have thrown all calculations to the wind,” he said. Last season, Thombare’s area reported an average per hectare cane of 110 tonnes but this year, it has come down to 80-85 tonnes.
Cane as a crop, Ghadge said, requires ample rainfall, long sunny days and cold winter nights. “While rains were not a problem, the constant cloudy sky was not conducive for the vegetative growth of the crop. However, as winters remained unusually warm, sucrose formation in the crop was hit. It was the opposite of last year – as if the weather gods decided to turn the tables on the crop,” he said.
As of Tuesday, Maharashtra has crushed 104.33 lakh tonnes of cane and produced 103.98 lakh tonnes of sugar. Barring a few mills in Pune, Solapur, Nanded and Ahmednagar, all other mills have ended their season, including all the 37 mills in Kolhapur and Sangli – the sugar bowl of the state.
