MAHARASHTRA, UP SUGAR OUTPUT SET TO FALL BY HALF

Mumbai: India's top two sugar producing states are likely to see output nearly halving to 8.66 million tonne in the year ending September 2009 on lower cane availability and poor recovery, trade officials said.

Maharashtra, the biggest producer n the country, has produced 4.55 million tonne as on March 31, compared to 7.24 million tonne a year ago, a senior official at state government's sugar commissionerate told Reuters.

Mills in Uttar Pradesh are estimated to have produced about 44% less sugar in the year ending September 2009 compared to a year ago

About 139 of the 143 mills functioning in Maharashtra in the current crop year that began in October had closed operations by March-end, the official, who declined to be named, said.

Four mills are still functioning and the state's final output may top 4.56 million tonne, he added.

The state had produced 9.1 million tonne in 2007-08.

Mills in Uttar Pradesh, the country's second largest producer, are estimated to have produced about 44% less sugar in the year ending September 2009 compared to a year ago, Shyam Lal Gupta, secretary of UP Sugar Mill Association, a leading trade body said.

The total output has just about touched 41 lakh tonne (4.1 million) and crushing has now ended in the state, Gupta said.

The two, states, which account for more than 60% of the country's total output, had produced about 16.4 million tonne in the year ending September 2008.

- Reuters
(The Financial Express: 7.4.2009)