Industry experts said the average drop in yield could be 15-20 per cent in ratoon crop, whereas it is too early to estimate the yield of the plant crop
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Sugar production in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest sugarcane grower, has dropped for the first time this season in January due to lower crushing. One mill of the biggest-producing firm Bajaj group, has closed its crushing operation on January 27 due to a lack of cane availability. Besides, farmers are complaining about lower yield this time as high as 30 per cent in some areas for old crop and 10 per cent in fresh crop.

“There will be lower production in Uttar Pradesh this year from what was earlier estimated. But it will be in line with last year’s production,” said Vijay S Banka, President of UP Sugar Mills Association. Banka, who is also MD of Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, also said that one has to wait how the plant crop comes out.

Farmers in western Uttar Pradesh complain about up to 30 per cent drop in the yield of the ratoon crop and about 10 per cent drop during the initial harvest of the plant crop. “I harvested 38 quintals per bigha ratoon sugarcane crop this year against 55 quintals last season,” said Pramajeet Singh Hooda, a farmer in Shamli district.

Too early to estimate

Industry experts said the average drop in yield could be 15-20 per cent in ratoon crop, whereas it is too early to estimate the yield of the plant crop. Ratoon is the old crop that grows automatically from the previous crop, whereas plant crop is from the seed planted in 2024-25.

“The rains in summer normally brings down the cane yield. Last year, there were good rains in western UP in April-May and it is the main cause for the reduced productivity,” said noted sugarcane breeder Bakshi Ram. He also said such summer rains affect plant crop more than ratoon.

According to a survey by a private firm, out 52 sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh from which data was gathered, 67 per cent are using the C-Heavy route and the remaining 33 per cent are using the B-Heavy route to process sugar. The CH route gives higher sugar as there is hardly any sucrose content in the CH molasses, when compared with B-Heavy molasses.

119 mills operational

Sugar production in January was 19.45 lakh tonnes (lt) against 20.1 lt, taking the total output this season to 55.10 lt during October-January, against 52.70 lt year-ago in Uttar Pradesh, according to data compiled by the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCSF), the industry body of cooperatives. It also shows that mills in the state had crushed 191.86 lt cane in January as against 212.83 lt year-ago.

Data also show that there were 119 mills operational in UP until January 15 and 118 mills were crushing cane as of January 31. Trade sources said that the Pratappur sugar mill in Deoria district having 6,000 tcd capacity, owned by Bajaj group has closed operation on January 27, after crushing 1,42,052 tonnes this year against 1,80,980 tonnes until February 2, 2025. Query sent to Bajaj Hindusthan was not replied.

According to the first advance estimate of Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA), pan India gross sugar production is estimated to be 343.5 lt in 2025–26 season, as against 349 lt in 2024-25. The net sugar output has been pegged at 309.5 lt after considering diversion of 34 lt (in terms of sucrose) for ethanol.

It had also said in November last year that in Uttar Pradesh, the gross sugar production (before diversion) may be 103.2 lt in 2025-26, compared with 101.01 lt despite 3 per cent drop in acreage as both yield and recovery were likely to drive the higher output.

Published on February 4, 2026