India's sugar production has declined nearly 20 per cent in the seven months of the ongoing crushing season compared to the corresponding period last year, however, over 100 sugar mills are still in operation.
Indian sugar mills produced 258.01 lakh tonnes of sugar till April 30 in the current sugar season 2019-20 (October-September), down by 63.70 lakh tonnes from the 321.71 lakh tonnes produced at the same time last year, said Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) on Friday in a statement.
However, as compared to 90 sugar mills which were crushing sugarcane on April 30, 2019, 112 sugar mills are crushing sugarcane on April 30 this year.
The sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh, the largest sugar producer in the country, have produced 116.52 lakh tonnes of sugar as on 30th April 2020, which is 3.72 lakh tonnes higher than the production of 112.80 lakh tonnes in the corresponding date last year.
In Maharashtra, sugar production till April 30, 2020 was 60.67 lakh tonnes, compared with 107.15 lakh tonnes produced last year in the same period, almost 46.5 lakh tonnes less than last year.
Sugar mills in Karnataka have produced 33.82 lakh tonnes of sugar till April 30, 2020 while 43.25 lakh tonnes of sugar was produced in 2018-19 in the corresponding period.
Till April 30, 2020, sugar production was 5.41 lakh tonnes in Tamil Nadu , compared with 7.02 lakh tonnes produced on the corresponding date last year.
Gujarat has produced 9.02 lakh tonnes of sugar till April 30, 2020 and only 1 sugar mill in operation. Last year, all the mills were closed for the season 2018-19 and 11.21 lakh tonnes of sugar had been produced on the same date.
The states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Odisha have collectively produced 32.57 lakh tonnes till April 30, 2020.
( With inputs from IANS )