India emerges as the world’s largest producer and consumer of sugar

Tags: National Economy/Finance National News

As per Ministry of Consumer Affairs, India emerges as the world’s largest producer and consumer of sugar and world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar.

Important facts

• India has produced more than 5000 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of sugarcane during the sugar season (October-September) 2021-22.

• Out of this, about 3574 LMT of sugarcane has been processed by sugar mills to produce about 394 lakh metric tonnes of sugar (sucrose).

• Of this, 35 lakh metric tonnes of sugar was used to prepare ethanol and 359 lakh metric tonnes of sugar was produced by sugar mills.

• All the records of sugarcane production, sugar production, sugar export, sugarcane procurement, cane arrears payment and ethanol production were set during the same season.

• Another centre of attraction in the current season is the record highest sugar export of around 109.8 lakh metric tonnes.

• The policies of the Government of India and supportive international prices have played a major role in the achievement of the Indian sugar industry.

• About Rs 40,000 crore foreign exchange has been earned for the country from exports.

The largest producer of sugarcane in the world

• Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane in the world.

• India is the second largest producer of sugarcane.

• Brazil produced about 32 million ton of sugar in 2021-22.

Major sugarcane-producing states in India

• Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka account for nearly 80 percent of the total sugar production in the country.

• The other major sugarcane-producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana, and Punjab.

• Since 2010-11, India has consistently produced surplus sugar, comfortably exceeding the domestic requirements.