In Brief — Pune

Cane crushing period extendedKolhapur: The State sugar commissioner, Arvind Reddy, has said the forthcoming sugarcane crushing period wil...

Cane crushing period extended
Kolhapur: The State sugar commissioner, Arvind Reddy, has said the forthcoming sugarcane crushing period will be spread over 200 days instead of the usual 160 days to enable the sugar mills to handle the cane glut. Preliminary estimates say the cane crop would touch a record 536 lakh metric tonnes, this year.

Speaking to media persons at Jawahar Shetakari Sahakari sugar factory at Hupari near here yesterday afternoon, Reddy said some 22 sugar factories in Kolhapur and Sangli districts would commence crushing next month.

Excluding the factories registered under the multi-state Cooperatives Act, no sugar mill would be allowed to bring in cane from outside their jurisdiction or from the neighbouring states. The cane from other states could be utilised only after the factories had used the cane from their jurisdictions.

Kolhapur and Sangli districts are likely to face a sugarcane glut. In Kolhapur, about about 78.35 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane will be available for crushing as against the collective crushing capacity of 65.35 lakh metric tonnes. The cane has to be crushed within 160 days by the twelve sugar mills in the district. The ten sugar mills in Sangli have a crushing capacity of 31.20 lakh metric tonnes where as the sugarcane available is about 45.30 lakh metric tonnes.