Sugarcane crushing for the 2018-19 season is all set to commence from Saturday. The season begins with cane arrears of farmers amounting to Rs 7,800 crore yet to be cleared by sugar mills.
UP had set a record in sugar production in the last season by producing 1.2 crore MT sugar. The first mill to commence cane crushing from Saturday is the Modi Group’s sugar mill in Meerut that has issued the indent to farmers for the supply of cane.
UP Cane Commissioner Sanjay Bhoosreddy said that by the end of this month, about 30 mills in the western and central regions of the state would become operational, including the regions of Meerut, Saharanpur and Moradabad.
“We are hopeful that by November 10, most of the mills in UP will be operational,” he said. There are 119 mills in UP out of which 94 are privately owned and 24 are run by co-operatives.
Late rain and hailstorms in some western UP districts, coupled with high night temperatures, have delayed maturity of the sugarcane crop.
“In the last 4-5 days, the night temperatures have started to fall below 20 degree Celsius and there is marked difference in day and night temperatures, which will hasten the process of maturity and result in speedier crushing operations and higher recovery as well,” he said.
Earlier, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the Sugarcane department to ensure that mills started crushing by October-end so that farmers could clear their fields on time for sowing of wheat.
This year, UP cane acreage is estimated at 26 lakh hectare, up 18 per cent from about 22 lakh hectare during 2017-18, when UP had clocked sugar production of over 1.2 crore MT with farmers’ payables touching Rs 35,400 crore.
With higher acreage this season, the farmers’ payouts are likely to top last year’s record levels and add to the woes of the sugar mills against the backdrop of mute sugar prices and market glut, both locally and globally.
The state’s mills have been asked to clear their dues by November. The state had earlier allocated Rs 5,500 crore to bail out the sugar sector from the payments crisis. This included Rs 4,000 crore to be offered to private sugar mills as soft loans. However, the soft loans would be offered to those private mills whose payment ratio was higher than 30 per cent during the last crushing season. The soft loan would be offered for a period of five years and attract interest of five per cent. The defaulters would have to cough up interest payment at the rate of 12 per cent. The mills have time till October 31 to apply for the soft loan with banks, which have to process and sanction the same by November 10.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has admitted that the domestic sugar sector is passing through challenging times owing to the crash in international sugar prices.