Sugar mills in state to start crushing only after Nov 15: Ajit Pawar

Kolhapur: The season of harvesting sugarcane for crushing in Maharashtra will begin only after Nov 15 this year, a delay of 15 days that are taking into consideration assembly elections and cane availability factors.
The decision on when to allow the state's sugar factories to start crushing sugarcane to produce sugar was taken at a high-level ministerial committee meeting chaired by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Monday.
Ajit Pawar said he has already discussed the possible dates for the upcoming state assembly poll and the need to start crushing only after Nov 15 with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The neighbouring Karnataka state govt has already announced that its mills will start crushing sugar only after Nov 15.
The sugarcane belt records footfalls of a large number of sugarcane cutters from Marathwada, who temporarily migrate for harvesting season.
Voting for the Maharashtra assembly polls is expected to take place before Nov 15.
In a written statement, Ajit Pawar said, "There is less availability of sugarcane in Maharashtra this time. The time of harvesting decides the sugar recovery rate. To ensure mills run an effective crushing season, the decision has been taken to delay it a little. I have spoken to the CM regarding possible poll dates and the crushing season before arriving at the conclusion."
In the 2023-24 season, 1,076 lakh tonnes of sugarcane were crushed for sugar. This time, Maharashtra has a total of 904 lakh tonnes of sugarcane available for crushing.
Around 12 lakh tonnes of sugar is expected to be diverted for ethanol production.
As per estimates from the sugar commissioner's office, the state's mills will produce 102 lakh tonnes of sugar at the rate of 9.95% at the end of the 2024-25 season.
Vijay Autade, a sugar industry expert, told TOI, "The closing stock of sugar pan-India currently is 83 lakh tonnes. Even if there is less production due to less sugarcane, there will be no shortage of sugar for domestic consumption, even though govt has allowed diversion of sugar for ethanol production."