Sugar mills across the country have produced 268.21 lakh tonnes (LT) of sugar till May 31, nearly 18 per cent lower than the production in the corresponding period in the previous sugar season, said Indian Sugar Mills’ Association (ISMA) on Tuesday.

Sugar mills produced 327.53 lt of sugar during the previous sugar season. India's sugar season runs from October to September.

Sugar production this year so far has been 3 lt more than the 265 lt projected by the sugar industry body earlier. This was because some quantity of sugarcane got diverted to the sugar mills as many jaggery and khandsari (unrefined sugar) manufacturers in Uttar Pradesh shut their operations due to the lockdown, ISMA said. It also expects an additional 6 lt of sugar production in the current season, as 18 sugar mills – mainly in UP -- are still crushing sugarcane, besides having a special sugar season in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka later in the year.

Sugar mills in UP have so far produced 125.46 lt of sugar, which is 7.65 lt more than the previous season's 117.81 lt till May 31, whereas their counterparts in Maharashtra produced 60.98 lt of sugar, which is about 46.2 lt less than that in the previous season. As sugar mills in Karnataka are already closed for crushing operations, the quantum of sugar produced in the State remains at 33.82 lt.

On the other hand, mills in Tamil Nadu have produced 5.78 lt of sugar so far, as against 7.22 lt in the same period last year. A special season has been announced in Tamil Nadu this year too. Last year, Tamil Nadu mills produced 2.13 lt during the special season.

The other sugar-producing states, including Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab, together produced 42.17 lt of sugar till the end of May, according to ISMA.

Meanwhile, the Oil Marketing Companies on Monday floated their third round of Expressions of Interest (EOI), inviting further bids from ethanol producers for another 99 crore litres of ethanol in the current year, for supplies from July 1 to November 30 this year.

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