Sugar mills get a breather as Maharashtra lifts ban on sale of molasses

The Maharashtra governing administration has lifted the ban on sale of molasses to other States and nations around the world, as the decrease in demand and manufacturing of liquor owing to the lockdown has resulted in accumulation of molasses with mills.

“Lifting of the ban will streamline the molasses enterprise, which is stagnant owing to the Covid-19 unfold. Sugar mills could promote their inventory of molasses, which will fix storage and air pollution problems. Farmers dependent on mills will reward if molasses get a very good selling price,” the State government’s resolution stated.

In December 2019, Maharashtra had banned the sale of molasses to other States and nations around the world until September thirty, 2020, considering the fact that drought and floods in the State had affected cane manufacturing. The State had noticed that liquor and ethanol manufacturing would get affected by the shortage of molasses.

In accordance to a report by the State Excise Division, Maharashtra’s mills had 3.02 lakh tonnes of molasses at the beginning of the 2019-twenty crushing year. This 12 months, mills have developed 24.10-lakh tonnes of molasses. As for every estimates from the Commissioner of Sugar’s business, mills might crush 950 tonnes of sugarcane in the 2020-21 year, manufacturing an approximated 36-38 lakh tonnes of molasses.

The State has lifted the ban with fast impact and authorised the State Excise Commissioner to forget about the sale of molasses to other States and nations around the world.

The Indian Sugar Mills Affiliation (ISMA) had issued an appeal expressing that to decrease the glut in availability of molasses in the sector upcoming 12 months, State governments should make it possible for and really encourage export of C-large molasses for at the very least a single 12 months in the 2020-21 sugar year, or until surplus sugarcane is developed by farmers. “Exports can come about without having any fiscal burden on the governing administration and nonetheless assistance in the use of extra B-molasses and cane juice for ethanol, rather of for sugar,” ISMA had stated.