Polls, festival to delay cane crushing in Maharashtra

Upcoming assembly elections and the festival season could delay the start of sugarcane crushing in Maharashtra, the largest sugar producing State, by about a fortnight to early November.

However, the delay is unlikely to have any influence on prices following excess supplies in the market and huge opening stocks of around 7.5 million tonnes in the new sugar season starting October 1.

In Maharashtra, many politicians – who have interest in the sugar sector – will be busy fighting assembly elections scheduled for October 15. Also, Diwali celebrations will extent till October 25.

“Though, officially the crushing season is expected to start by October 15, it may actually begin after Diwali in the last week of October or early November,” said MG Joshi, Managing Director of the National Federation of Sugar Co-operatives.

Though the outgoing Congress Government in Maharashtra announced the creation of a separate board for deciding the price of sugarcane, it may actually start functioning after the new government is in place.

The declining trend in sugar prices may pose a challenge for the board to decide cane prices.

The Union Government has fixed a fair and remunerative price of ₹220/quintal for a 9.5 per cent sugar recovery.

Trade sources said sugar prices are expected to stay bearish on ample supplies. “The delay in crushing is unlikely to have any impact on the sugar prices as there are sufficient stocks,” said Abhijit Ghorpade, a sugar trader and exporter in Kolhapur.

Meanwhile, about 10 factories in south Karnataka have started crushing in the last few weeks, while some units in central Karnataka are expected to begin operations in the next few weeks.

However, the fact that factories are yet to clear last year's payments has angered farmers, who are asking the State Government to clear their dues.

“We have asked the State Government to clear the payments – estimated at ₹2,300 crore and recover them from millers,” said Kurubur Shantkumar, Convenor of State Sugar Cane Growers Association.

Blaming the Karnataka Government for not being serious in resolving farmers’ issues, Shantkumar said growers plan to resort to agitation from October 5 if the government does not intervene by then.

The Centre had recently asked the sugar companies to give a timeline by when they would clear the ₹7,000-crore arrears to farmers before it could consider the fresh demand placed by the industry.

A majority of the private mills in Uttar Pradesh have decided not to start crushing this season in the absence of a rational pricing policy.