Mumbai, Oct 20: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced on Thursday that the sugarcane crushing season in the state will start from November one.
He made announcement to this effect in a meeting of the ministerial committee for sugarcane harvesting season.
This year, 14.07 lakh hectares of total sugarcane area will be available for crushing and estimated 88.58 lakh metric tonnes of sugar will be produced.
This year, the area under sugarcane has decreased by six per cent as compared to last year, he said.
Last year, 211 sugar mills in the state had taken up crushing of sugarcane and had produced 105 lakh metric tonnes of sugar.
This year, however, sugar production is estimated to be 88.58 lakh metric tonnes, he said.
In 2022-23 season, Maharashtra ranked first in the country, in terms of sugar production, followed by Uttar Pradesh.
It was also decided to collect Rs 10 per tonne from sugar mills for benefit of various schemes for sugarcane workers, for their families, education of their children and give this amount to the people’s Leader Gopinath Munde Sugarcane Workers Welfare Corporatioy, added the Chief Minister.
