Net sugar production this season (October 2024-September 2025) is expected to be 27 million tonnes (mt) – 4.9 mt lower than the 31.9 mt produced in the 2023-24 season (October-September), National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) said in a statement. The association of cooperative-owned sugar mills had earlier projected this year’s sugar production to be 28 mt.
The All-India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA) has pegged this season’s (October-September) sugar production at 26.52 mt, while the Indian Sugar and Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) has also revised the production downwards in the second estimate and now its net output is seen at 27.27 mt.
Out of 531 sugar mills operated this season, 454 factories are continuing the crushing season as of February 15, NFCSF said in a statement Monday. The number of operational factories was 505 in the year-ago period, it said.
Recovery down
“As of February 15, 77 sugar mills concluded their crushing against only 28 factories ended the crushing season on this date last year,” it said.
Sharing the latest update, the federation also said sugar production has dropped to 19.77 mt between October 1, 2024, and February 15, 2025, from 22.48 mt in the year-ago period due to less quantity of sugarcane crushed.
As much as 217.5 mt of sugarcane has been crushed across the country till February 15 against 227.7 mt in the year-ago period. The average sugar recovery (excluding diversion for production of ethanol) in the country has been 9.09 per cent, down from 9.87 per cent last year.
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“The level of selling prices in the local market will remain satisfactory so that it will be possible for the factories to pay off the cane payments to sugarcane producers,” said Harshvardhan Patil, President of NFCSF. Pointing out that there has been no increase in the minimum selling price of sugar as well as the purchase price of ethanol produced from the sugar industry, he said an early decision on both will help improve cash liquidity of the factories.
Crushing over in 34 Karnataka units
Patil also said it is important for India to plan for large-scale sugar exports in the new season. From October 2025 to June 2026, there is expected to be a good demand for Indian white sugar from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, east Asia, and the Middle East he said and appealed factories to start planning for the coming sugar season.
According to Prakash Naiknavare, Managing Director of NFCSF), Uttar Pradesh has reported 68 mt of sugarcane crushed with a sugar output of 6.33 mt at 9.3 per cent recovery.
So far, Maharashtra has seen closure of crushing in 30 factories, where 74 mt of sugarcane has been crushed, with an average recovery of 9.20 per cent and sugar production reaching at 6.81 mt.
Out of 79 factories in Karnataka, the crushing season of 34 factories has ended, the maximum in any state this year, and 43.7 mt of sugarcane has been crushed, with an average recovery of 8.5 per cent, resulting in a net sugar production of 3.72 mt.
The cooperative sugar body also said that about 3.7 mt of sugar will be diverted for ethanol production this year.