India’s sugar production rose 7.32 per cent to 27.52 million tonne so far in the 2025-26 marketing season, driven by higher output in Maharashtra and Karnataka, industry body ISMA said on Thursday.
The output stood at 25.64 million tonne in the year-ago period (till April 30). The sugar marketing season runs from October to September.
According to the Indian Sugar and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA), Maharashtra, the country’s largest sugar-producing state, saw production climb to 9.92 million tonne from 8.09 million tonne, while Karnataka’s output rose to 4.80 million tonne from 4.04 million tonne.
Uttar Pradesh, however, saw the output falling to 8.96 million tonne from 9.24 million tonne a year earlier.
ISMA projected total production for the 2025-26 marketing season at 29.3 million tonne after ethanol diversion, up from 26.12 million tonne recorded in 2024-25.
Milling activity has wound down sharply, with only five factories still operational compared with 19 at the same point last year. All mills in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka have closed for the main season, though some Karnataka units will operate in a special season from June-July 2026, ISMA said in a statement.
Mills in Tamil Nadu will also continue through the special season, with the two states historically contributing around 500,000 tonne during that period.
As the season draws to a close, the industry has pressed for an early revision of the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of sugar, citing rising production costs and subdued ex-mill realisations putting pressure on mill cash flows and and fuelling cane payment arrears.
In Maharashtra alone, cane payment arrears stood at Rs 2,130 crore as of mid-April, nearly triple the Rs 752 crore recorded in the year-ago period.
The industry also urged the government to advance ethanol blending targets beyond the current E20 programme towards higher blends such as E25 and E85/E100, backed by a faster rollout of flex-fuel vehicles and rationalised goods and services tax rates.
ISMA flagged underutilisation of distillation capacities due to delayed revision in ethanol procurement prices, saying a prompt price revision was essential to improve capacity utilisation and provide policy certainty to investors.
