The sugar industry has pruned its production estimate for the 2016-17 sugar season (October-September) to 203 lakh tonnes from the previously estimated 213 lakh tonnes due to the drought affecting sugarcane yields in States such as Maharashtra and Karnataka.

In 2015-16, sugar mills had produced 251 lakh tonnes of sugar.

“After detailed discussions and considering the views of members representing the respective States, ISMA is of the opinion that sugar production in 2016-17 would be around 203 lakh tonnes,” an official statement from the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said.

The industry body, however, stated that despite a drop in production, the closing balance of sugar this year would be about 40 lakh tonnes, which would be enough to meet the domestic requirement till November 2017.

Actual sugar production in the on-going sugar season till February 28 is estimated by ISMA at 162.45 lakh tonnes.

This is lower by about 18 per cent from the 199.43 lakh tonnes of sugar produced in the comparable period last season.

Explaining the reason for the downward revision from the January estimate, ISMA said it was due to the fact that the yield of sugarcane harvested in January and February in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which were badly affected by a drought in the last couple of years, turned out to be substantially lower than what was being expected.

“In some areas, the yield per hectare in the month of February 2017 was 40 per cent to 50 per cent lower than last year at the same time.

In addition to this, higher need of seed for increased acreage, especially in Maharashtra, resulted in lower sugarcane availability for crushing this season,” the release said.