Sugar mills unlikely to advance crush

Pune: Despite industry bodies vowing to advance the sugarcane crushing season by 10-15 days earlier than usual to alleviate soaring sugar prices, most sugar mills in India are hesitant to do so, according to senior industry officials. The primary obstacle is a scarcity of migrant labor, which is usually only available around Diwali in November.

Even mechanized harvesting, currently constrained, cannot compensate for this labor shortage, they pointed out. The Indian Sugar & Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) and the National Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation had pledged to the government in a public letter that they would start the sugarcane crushing process 10-15 days sooner than the norm, contingent on the prevailing agroclimatic conditions.

Nevertheless, even with the government's price control measures like stock limits and physical stock verifications, sugar prices have remained unrelenting in their upward trajectory. As reported by The Economic Times, harvesting labor will only be able to exit their homes from the first week of November, contingent on the sugar mills' decision to raise labor charges.

Gahini Thore Patil, a prominent leader of sugarcane harvesters from Maharashtra, shared this sentiment. Senior officials of the sugar industry, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the central government has discussed various incentives with sugar mills for advancing the crushing operations, such as granting a larger sugar sales quota or permitting them to sell all the sugar they produce in October.