Diversified business conglomerate Zuari Industries, which has its lone sugar mill in Uttar Pradesh, has helped the company to buck the general trend in the sugar sector in the state with the highest-ever sugarcane crushing of 15.7 lakh tonnes (lt), up 11per cent, year-on-year.
The company’s Lakhimpur-based Gobind Sugar Mills has produced 1.48 lt of sugar with an improved recovery rate of 10.61 per cent after crushing operation commenced from October 27, 2024 in current sugar season (October-September), company officials said. Sugar sales also grew 47 per cent, y-o-y to ₹602 crore during FY2024-25 fiscal mainly due to higher allocation by government. The profit from sugar segment rose to Rs 54.5 crore in FY25 from Rs 5.3 crore in FY24.
This was the earliest start of the crushing season in the mill’s history, and it contributed significantly to improved plant utilisation, Athar Shahab, Managing Director of Zuari Industries, told businessline.
Government quota
“The sales depend on the release of quota by the government,” Shahab explained. “This year, we were given a healthy quota—based on our stock position, production —and we responded positively. The increase in price realisation was modest, around 4 per cent compared to last year. But we fully utilised the significantly higher quota, which translated into stronger sales performance.”
According to government data, Zuari has been allocated nearly 44 per cent higher sugar during October-June period of current sugar season under the domestic monthly quota that government fixes for each sugar mill in the country – 1,00,398 tonnes during October-June period of current sugar season against 69,782 tonnes in the year-ago period.
In Uttar Pradesh, all sugar mills together had crushed 956.19 lt of sugarcane this season, lower from 977.83 lt year-ago, producing 92.75 lt of sugar against 103.65 lt last season. The average recovery (sugar produced from sugarcane) has also dropped to 9.7 per cent from 10.6 per cent.
Mobile app
On being asked how Zuari managed to buck the industry trend on sugarcane availability—when many mills shut early due to a supply shortfall—Shahab credited his team’s proactive engagement with farmers.
“I came to know about the drop in production across Uttar Pradesh as we progressed through the season,” he said adding in the command area of the mill the company worked very closely with the farmers, and that made all the difference.
Zuari had launched a mobile app to capture real-time farm-level data and rolled out a multi-year ‘Cane Excellence’ programme in its command area—the zone allocated by the government where mills are required to procure all sugarcane offered by farmers. This programme aims to improve cane acreage, yield, and recovery rate. A key initiative under it is a varietal replacement programme.
Demonstrating scientific practices
On farmers’ reluctance to shift away from the high-yielding but pest-prone CO-0238 variety, he said: “Last year, we developed 50 demonstration plots, each of approximately 1 acre, to show farmers the potential of scientific practices and alternative varieties. It had a salutary impact. This year, we’re scaling it up fivefold to 250 demo plots.
“We were able to track cane growth in the fields, stay in constant touch with farmers, monitor crop health and infestation risks, and provide timely advisory support.” Our field teams worked closely with farmers throughout the season, which is why we were able to stand tall at the end.”
He also highlighted that Zuari achieved a new benchmark this season, crushing 1.09 lakh tonnes of sugarcane in a single day—the highest since the mill was acquired in 1952.
The 10,000-tonnes crushed per day (TCPD) facility mill has a capacity to produce 500 tons of refined sugar per day, 40 MW per hour bagasse-based cogeneration plant, and a 125-KLPD ethanol distillery.
Published on June 3, 2025
