A sugarcane union in Uttar Pradesh in northern India has requested better cane prices for farmers. This at a time when preliminary local production is ebbing and sugar prices are falling worldwide.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) wants the union government to up the price from 370 rupees ($4.37) a quintal to a reasonable 450 rupees ($5.31). 

In the December 1, 2024 briefing, BKU cited rising inflation and hence the need for strong farm gate prices.

While India guarantees prices for most commercial crops with its Minimum Support Prices (MSP), the sugarcane sector enjoys a low minimum.

The last MSP fixture came up in February 2024 at 340 rupees ($4.01) per quintal for the year starting October 1, 2024.

This rate will remain put unless changed for the 2024-25 sugar season at a sugar recovery rate of 10.25%. “Sugar recovery rate” indicates the total raw sugar obtainable from a single cane and helps determine costs for processors.

In the seasonal harvest that began on October 1 ending December 1, 2024, sugar mills in India have reported low conversion.

According to Reuters, this two-month period has turned out 2.79 million tonnes of sugar, down 35.4% year-on-year (y-o-y).

In Uttar Pradesh,  production was down 1% for the first two months of the 2024-25 season, to 1.29 million tonnes.

This production drop could mean that India might see its supplies ebb and a consequential price rise. To prevent this from hurting consumers, the country might do away with existing export quotas and align with the currently low global prices.

By December 2, 2024, New York’s and London’s futures for March deliveries had fallen to two- and three-week lows, respectively. 

The main factor for the fall is a weak Brazilian real. As the currency of the world’s biggest cane hub, Brazil, a weak real usually brings down global sugar prices.

Reports also indicate that Thailand’s production in the 2024-25 season would improve by 18% year-on-year. This is yet another bearish factor for the global price.

India in its part has restricted exports since October 2023 to just six million tonnes per year. 

With this local production ebb and accessory global factors, it is only natural that India’s cane unions should agitate better farmers’ prices. And as the following statistics indicate, cane farming is a backbone of the country’s commercial agriculture. 

India Sugarcane Statistics 

India is the world’s number two biggest producer of sugarcane after Brazil. The country’s cane belt covers a massive 4,851,230 hectares (ha) as of 2021, which rose to 5,175,410 ha as of 2022, per FAOSTAT. This vast area manages an annual output of between 405,398,710 and 439,424,890 metric tonnes in  2021 and 2022 respectively. Almost all sugarcane in India processes sugar although the country sometimes allows use of cane to produce ethanol. 

Of all commercial crops in India, sugarcane brings the highest production value and  is often a first choice for farmers. It grows lushly from Karnataka to UP, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra states. As such, cane cultivation in India touches most livelihoods from farmers to transporters and milling workers to sugar retailers. 

How many kg of sugarcane does a typical person in India produce? 

In 2021, India boasted  303.3 kg in sugarcane production per person per year. This compares well with another populous sugarcane-producing nation, China, with 76.95 kg per person per year.

Is sugarcane yield high in India? 

India’s sugarcane yield was the fifth highest in 2021 among the top ten cane-producing nations, at 78.5776 tonnes per hectare. The tenth biggest sugarcane producer, Guatemala had the biggest yield rate in 2021, at 114.9781 tonnes per hectare.