The reason behind this fall is drought in key growing state of Maharashtra, the second largest producer of sugarcane in India. Marathwada and Vidarbha has only been able to plant 70 percent of the sugarcane and thus, there will be shortage of sugarcane supply during the year for mills in Maharashtra.
The recent cane acreage is down by about 10-15 per cent in Kolhapur, In other sugar zones such as Pune and Solapur, the cane acreage is down by 20-25 per cent and the highest decline would be in Marathawada and Vidarbha at around 35 per cent. All of these areas have been facing drought like conditions for last two-year.
The only hope of revival of this crop is on time arrival of monsoon this year in the country, India being biggest producer after Brazil, producing around 27mt of sugar on an average. The average consumption of sugar in India is 24mt and a fall in sugar will lead to import and rise in sugar price both in domestic as well as world market.
Photograph by Lauri Andler (Phantom)