Sugar stock, held by mills as on July 31 was 90.58 lakh tonnes (lt), the government said in a notification while allocating 22.5 lt of quota to sugar factories for sales in domestic market during August.
This leaves a likely closing stock of about 68 lt at end of this month, which may create a tight situation amid festival demand ahead.
“Last year, the government had allocated 22 lt sugar in August and 23.5 lt in September. This year’s August quota is already higher and even if next month quota is kept at year-ago level, the closing stock on September 30 may be around 46 lt after considering 1-2 lt of fresh sugar production in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu during August-September,” a sugar company official said.
The closing stock of sugar on September 30, 2024 was 79 lt, which helped India to manage the supply situation as the net production is estimated to drop to 261 lt in 2024-25 season (October-September) against domestic consumption of 280 lt.
The notional closing stock of sugar on June 30 was about 112 lt and the July quota was 22 lt. This indicates that almost entire quantity of July quota was sold as demand has picked up ahead of festive season, that will start with Raksha Bandhan.
Releasing the first sugar production estimate for 2025-26 season, the Indian Sugar and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) on July 31 said that the domestic availability is adequate to meet festival demand when fresh production will start arriving from November, along with carry forward stock of 52 lt.
ISMA has also said that the country may have gross output of 349.01 lt, up by 18 per cent from 295.07 lt in 2024-25. It has urged the government to permit export of 20 lt and allocate another 50 lt for diversion towards ethanol. Though, the government does not allocate quantity to be diverted for ethanol, the mills decide the production of the biofuel based on the purchase demand of the public sector oil marketing companies.
Last year, the government had allocated 47.5 lt of sugar for domestic sales during October and November, whereas mills had produced 27.9 lt in the same period. Industry officials are expecting higher production this time due to better sugarcane yield and increased juice recovery.
Published on August 1, 2025
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