The government approved sugar mills to use both sugarcane juice and B-heavy molasses to make ethanol in the supply year 2023-24. 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. In fact, the industry was demanding withdrawal of this decision.
“Sugar mills have been given the option to use both sugarcane juice and B-heavy molasses within the total limit of 17 lakh tonnes of sugar for ethanol production in the supply year 2023-24 (November-October),” Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said. He said a committee of ministers took this decision during its meeting on Friday. The Committee of Ministers took this decision after considering the demands received from the industry regarding withdrawal of the ban imposed last week.
On December 7, the government had banned the use of sugarcane juice and sugar syrup in ethanol production with immediate effect. However, permission was given to supply ethanol for the existing proposals received from Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). “We are working on modalities to decide on the ratio of sugarcane juice and B-heavy molasses used in making ethanol,” Chopra said. He said that in the current supply year, some ethanol has already been made from sugarcane juice.
Another Food Ministry official said that before the previous order was issued, about six lakh tonnes of ethanol had been made from sugarcane juice. The government estimates that the country’s sugar production will decline to 32-33 million tonnes in the sugar season 2023-24, whereas in the last crushing season it was more than 37 million tonnes. There is a possibility of decrease in sugarcane yield due to the forecast of decline in sugar production. Keeping this in mind, the government had last week stopped the use of sugarcane juice and molasses in ethanol production.