COMMODITY
India's sugar production rises 43% in first two months of 2025-26 marketing year: ISMA
Dec-03-2025

Indian Sugar and Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) in its latest report said that India's sugar production rose 43 per cent to 4.11 million tonnes in the first two months of the 2025-26 marketing year, driven by strong output from Maharashtra. Production stood at 2.88 million tonnes in the same period a year earlier. The marketing year runs from October to September. The number of operating factories rose to 428 this year from 376 in the year-ago period.

Production in Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest sugar producing state, reached 1.40 million tonnes through November, up from 1.28 million tonnes a year earlier. Output in Maharashtra, the second-largest producing state, surged to 1.69 million tonnes from 460,000 tonnes in the year-ago period. Production in Karnataka, the third-largest state, fell to 774,000 tonnes from 812,000 tonnes despite crushing operations gaining pace after early disruptions due to farmer protests. Gujarat produced 92,000 tonnes and Tamil Nadu 35,000 tonnes so far this year.

It added that the pan-India average cost of production has risen to Rs 41.72 per kg following recent increases in cane costs in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand. An increased MSP is essential to ensure fair returns to mills and timely payment to farmers.  

The association also urged the government to raise ethanol procurement prices to reflect higher feedstock and conversion costs. ISMA said that the current allocation of 2.89 billion liters of ethanol to the sugar sector for the 2025-26 ethanol supply year represents just 27.5 per cent of total allocations, creating an imbalance and leaving distillery capacity underutilized. ISMA has projected a net sugar production of 30.95 million tonnes for 2025-26, excluding diversion for ethanol making, compared with actual output of 26.11 million tonnes in the previous year.

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