Minister for Sugar Shivanand Patil on Tuesday said all sugar factories in Karnataka will commence crushing of sugarcane from October 25 and production of sugar is estimated at 34.51 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 against 59.81 lakh tonnes during 2022-23.
The area under sugarcane has reduced from 7.5 lakh hectares in 2022-23 to 6.5 lakh hectares in 2023-24, largely owing to drought in the State. There is likelihood of shortage of sugar owing to shortfall in the cane production as erratic rainfall hit sugarcane yields in the country, the Minister said.
The recovery of sugar would also reduce from 9.91% to 8% and the crushing season would began early this year as sugarcane would get dried up, the Minister said. Earlier, the crushing season used to start from November 1.
The sugarcane crushing season would produce 1800 MW of power and 40,000 liters of methanol during 2023-24. Noting that the department has received 65 applications seeking permission to start new factories, the Minister said the permission would be granted to set up a factory at a distance of 25 km from another unit.
