India's sugar production off to a robust start during Oct-Sep 2025-26 season, industry reiterates sugar MSP, ethanol procurement price revision demand

India’s sugar season 2025-26 (October 2025-September 2026) has started off in a robust manner   with sugarcane throughput outperforming seasonal trends to see sugar production till 30th November, 2025 touch 41.08 lakh tonnes, as against 28.76 lakh tonnes produced during the same period last year.

Higher crushing volumes signal robust start to the season and is aligned with the expectations says Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA).

According to the data compiled by ISMA, the number of operating sugar factories were also higher at 428 this year, against 376 factories which operated last year on the corresponding date.

Field-level feedback points to healthier cane yields and better sugar recovery rates across key states versus last year, as sugarcane crushing gains momentum across the country, ISMA stated.

In Uttar Pradesh, sugar production reached 13.97 lakh tonnes, higher by 1.17 lakh tonnes against last year as of end of November 2024. Similarly, Maharashtra sugar mills also outperformed last year performance on the corresponding date with 170 operating mills and sugar production at 16.95 lakh tonnes. In the case of Karnataka, the other major sugarcane producing state, crushing operations has caught pace despite early disruptions due to farmers agitations, ISMA data shows.

Anticipating higher production, ISMA has reiterated its demand of upward revision of the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of sugar, which has remained frozen for over six years despite rising production costs. The association pointed out that with the recent increase of cane cost in U.P., Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttarakhand, the pan-India average cost of production has gone up to Rs 41.72/kg. An increased MSP is essential to ensure fair returns to mills and timely payment to farmers, the association said.

ISMA also urged the government to enhance the ethanol procurement price to reflect higher feedstock and conversion costs. “The current allocation of only 289 crore litres of ethanol to the sugar sector for ESY 2025–26 — merely 27.5% of total allocations — has created a serious imbalance and left a large part of distillery capacity underutilised. To ensure optimum utilisation and long-term stability, ethanol allocation to the sugar industry should be made in line with the NITI Aayog’s Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Roadmap, which emphasised 55% contribution coming from the sugar sector”, the association states.