The government approved the use of both sugarcane juice and B-Havi Sheera to make sugar mills ethanol in the supply year 2023-24 (Supply Year). But the maximum limit of sugar given for this has been fixed at 17 lakh tonnes. The government has taken this decision a week after banning the use of sugarcane juice and sugar molasses to make ethanol. Actually the industry was demanding to withdraw this decision.
Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said, “Sugar mills have been given the option of using both sugarcane juice and B-Haavi molasses within the total limit of 17 lakh tonnes of sugar for ethanol production in the year 2023-24 (November). He said that a committee of ministers took this decision during its meeting on Friday. The committee of ministers took this decision after considering the demands from the industry about withdrawing the ban imposed last week.
On December 7, the government banned the use of sugarcane juice and sugar syrup in ethanol production with immediate effect. However, the supply of ethanol was allowed for the existing proposals received from the oil marketing companies (OMC). Chopra said, “We are working on the methods of deciding on the ratio of sugarcane juice and B-Haavi molasses used in making ethanol.” He said that some ethanol has already been made before sugarcane juice in the current supply year.
Another official of the Food Ministry said that about six lakh tonnes of ethanol had been made with sugarcane juice before issuing the previous order. The government estimates that in the Chinese session 2023-24, the country’s sugar production will decrease to 3.2-3.3 million tonnes while it was more than 3.7 million tonnes in the last crushing season. Sugarcane yield is expected to decrease behind the estimate of a decline in sugar production. Keeping this in mind, the government had stopped using sugarcane juice and molasses in ethanol production last week.
