Maha's sugarcane crushing season to begin early this year: Official

The sugarcane crushing season in Maharashtra will begin early this year - from the first day of October, instead of the end of that month, a senior official has said.

The sugarcane crushing season in Maharashtra generally starts in October-November and continues till mid-April. However, in the 2021-22 season, the crushing process stretched till the end of May due to record production of the crop.

Maharashtra had set a record for itself by producing 137.28 lakh tonnes of sugar in the 2021-22 season, which was nearly 31 lakh tonnes more than the year before it.

"Looking at the record production of sugarcane and sugar in the previous season, the mills in Maharashtra will start the production early this year," state Sugar Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad told PTI on Tuesday.

The cane crushing process for the 2022-23 season will begin on the first day of October, he said.

The farmers in the state had produced 1,413 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane in the bygone season, which gave 137.2 lakh tones of sugar, he said.

As per the estimate given by the sugar commissioner office, the sugar production this year is expected to be around 138 lakh tonnes. The number of sugar mills that operated during the last season was 200, which is expected to go up by three this year.

As against the 1,321 lakh tonnes of sugarcane crushed during the last season, the quantum projected by the sugar commissioner office this year is 1,343 lakh tonnes, as per the projection report.