Latest news with #EthanolBlendingProgramme
Mint
30-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Indias sugar output falls 18 pc to 25.82 mn tonnes till July of this season: NFCSFL
New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) India's sugar production declined 18.38 per cent to 25.82 million tonnes till July in the current season ending October, down from the year-ago period, as major producing states reported lower output, the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCSFL) said on Wednesday. The cooperative body expects total output to reach 26.11 million tonnes for the full season, well below the 31.9 million tonnes produced in 2023-24. Special crushing operations in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which run from June to September, are underway and expected to add some more tonnes to the total. Seven mills are operating in Karnataka compared to one last year, while Tamil Nadu has nine mills running versus 11 in the prior year. According to NFCSFL, Uttar Pradesh, India's largest sugar producer, saw output fall to 9.27 million tonnes till July from 10.36 million tonnes a year earlier. Maharashtra, the second-largest producer, reported a steeper decline to 8.09 million tonnes from 11 million tonnes, while Karnataka dropped to 4.06 million tonnes from 5.16 million tonnes. The production decline was due to reduced sugarcane availability, adverse weather conditions, increased diversion to ethanol production, and pest and disease outbreaks. In a significant development, India achieved 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol in 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 target. The milestone underscores the country's push to enhance energy security and reduce carbon emissions while boosting rural incomes. "This shift indicates greater feedstock diversification but also raises important questions about the long-term sustainability of ethanol production from sugarcane, particularly in years of surplus inventory," the NFCSFL said. Maharashtra approved the establishment of multi-feed distilleries across the state on July 23, aligning with the National Bioenergy Policy and India's Ethanol Blending Programme, which now targets 30 per cent blending by 2030. Ex-mill sugar prices have hovered around ₹ 3,900 per quintal following export quota announcements but showed a downward trend since mid-May. Rising festive season demand is expected to stabilise prices, crucial for mills conducting off-season maintenance, the Federation said. Looking ahead, the NFCSFL projects 35 million tonnes of sugar production in 2025-26, citing favourable monsoons, increased cane cultivation in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and a timely hike in the Fair and Remunerative Price by the government. The federation urged policy interventions, including revised ethanol procurement prices, increased minimum selling prices for sugar, and permission for sugar exports to manage excess inventory as per capita consumption declines due to growing health awareness. "Such measures are essential to safeguard the viability of sugar mills, maintain rural employment, and ensure India continues its forward momentum on both the ethanol and cooperative development fronts," said Prakash Naiknavare, Managing Director of NFCSFL.
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Business Standard
30-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
India's sugar output falls 18% to 25.82 MT till July of this season: NFCSFL
India's sugar production declined 18.38 per cent to 25.82 million tonnes till July in the current season ending October, down from the year-ago period, as major producing states reported lower output, the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCSFL) said on Wednesday. The cooperative body expects total output to reach 26.11 million tonnes for the full season, well below the 31.9 million tonnes produced in 2023-24. Special crushing operations in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which run from June to September, are underway and expected to add some more tonnes to the total. Seven mills are operating in Karnataka compared to one last year, while Tamil Nadu has nine mills running versus 11 in the prior year. According to NFCSFL, Uttar Pradesh, India's largest sugar producer, saw output fall to 9.27 million tonnes till July from 10.36 million tonnes a year earlier. Maharashtra, the second-largest producer, reported a steeper decline to 8.09 million tonnes from 11 million tonnes, while Karnataka dropped to 4.06 million tonnes from 5.16 million tonnes. The production decline was due to reduced sugarcane availability, adverse weather conditions, increased diversion to ethanol production, and pest and disease outbreaks. In a significant development, India achieved 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol in 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 target. The milestone underscores the country's push to enhance energy security and reduce carbon emissions while boosting rural incomes. "This shift indicates greater feedstock diversification but also raises important questions about the long-term sustainability of ethanol production from sugarcane, particularly in years of surplus inventory," the NFCSFL said. Maharashtra approved the establishment of multi-feed distilleries across the state on July 23, aligning with the National Bioenergy Policy and India's Ethanol Blending Programme, which now targets 30 per cent blending by 2030. Ex-mill sugar prices have hovered around Rs 3,900 per quintal following export quota announcements but showed a downward trend since mid-May. Rising festive season demand is expected to stabilise prices, crucial for mills conducting off-season maintenance, the Federation said. Looking ahead, the NFCSFL projects 35 million tonnes of sugar production in 2025-26, citing favourable monsoons, increased cane cultivation in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and a timely hike in the Fair and Remunerative Price by the government. The federation urged policy interventions, including revised ethanol procurement prices, increased minimum selling prices for sugar, and permission for sugar exports to manage excess inventory as per capita consumption declines due to growing health awareness. "Such measures are essential to safeguard the viability of sugar mills, maintain rural employment, and ensure India continues its forward momentum on both the ethanol and cooperative development fronts," said Prakash Naiknavare, Managing Director of NFCSFL. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Business Standard
15-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Grainspan invests ₹520 cr in ethanol units, benefits from govt's subsidy
Encouraged by the Union Food Ministry's interest subsidy scheme, Grainspan Nutrients has invested ₹520 crore to set up two grain-based ethanol plants in Ahmedabad and is supplying green fuel for blending with petrol. The two plants, which use maize and rice as feedstock, have a total installed capacity of 350 kilolitres per day. Grainspan's first grain-based ethanol plant, located at Bhamsara Village in Ahmedabad district, became operational in May 2023 with a capacity of 110 kilolitres per day. This plant was Gujarat's first grain-based ethanol facility. Enthused by the success, the company last month commissioned its second facility, which has been built at a cost of Rs 360 crore with an installed capacity of 240 kilolitres per day at the same location. The company supplies ethanol to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) under the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP). "There are three grain-based ethanol plants in Gujarat, of which two facilities are being operated by us. We were the first to set up such a plant in the state, thanks to the central government subsidy," Grainspan Nutrients Pvt Ltd CEO Manoj Khandelwal said here. He said there is an immense growth potential in ethanol production in India, not only to meet domestic demand but exports also. Grainspan, which has been into manufacturing of food ingredients since 2014, forayed into ethanol a few years back to diversify its business taking advantage of interest subsidy. The decision has helped the company increase its turnover which touched Rs 760 crore last fiscal. Grainspan Ingredients Pvt Ltd CFO Pankit Shah said the company has invested a total of Rs 520 crore in these two plants, which are fully operational. "The first plant has been set up with the help of Central Government interest subsidy. We have taken a loan of Rs 120 crore for the first plant," he said, adding that there is no interest subsidy on the second plant. In the 2024-25 Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) that runs from November to October, Grainspan Nutrients will supply around 8 crore litre to OMCs at a fixed rate of nearly Rs 72 per litre. In the next ESY, the figure will reach 12 crore litres generating a topline of more than Rs 800 crore. Apart from grain-based, Gujarat has 13 sugarcane-based distilleries. Till June 8 of the current ESY, the ethanol blending has reached 18.9 per cent in the state with the supply of nearly 33 crore litres of green fuel. The Centre has notified various ethanol interest subvention schemes from 2018 to 2022 (in 2021 ethanol production from grain was also included under these schemes) to encourage sugar mills and distilleries to enhance their ethanol production capacities. Under all these subvention schemes, the government is facilitating project proponents to avail loans from banks/financial institutions. It provides interest subvention at 6 per cent or 50 per cent of the interest, whichever is lower, for a period of five years including one-year moratorium period. A new interest subvention scheme for cooperative sugar mills has also been notified in March 2025 for conversion of their existing sugarcane-based plants into multi-feed-based ethanol plants. Grainspan CFO said that the company's turnover rose 20 per cent to Rs 758 crore last fiscal, of which Rs 416 crore came from the food business and Rs 342 crore from ethanol. Pan-India, many companies and cooperatives have taken advantage of the interest subsidy incentive to set up new or expand ethanol-making capacities with sugarcane and grain (maize and rice) as feedstock. As a result, India's total ethanol-making capacity has jumped over four times in the last 11 years of the current government. Till year 2013, ethanol distillation capacity in the country was 421 crore litres. At present, the ethanol production capacity in the country has reached 1,810 crore litres, which includes 816 crore litres of molasses-based capacity, 136 crore litres of dual feed capacity and 858 crore litres of grain-based capacity. Additional capacity has led to an increase in percentage of ethanol blending with petrol. Till year 2013, supply of ethanol to OMCs was only 38 crore litres with blending levels of only 1.53 per cent in 2013-14 ESY. Production of fuel-grade ethanol and its supply to OMCs has increased by more than 18 times from ESY 2013-14 to ESY 2023-24. In ESY 2023-24, about 707 crore litres of ethanol has been blended by OMCs thereby achieving a blending of 14.60 per cent. In the current ESY 2024-25 till May 25, about 548 crore litres of ethanol has been blended by achieving a blending of 18.74 per cent. The government has set a target of 20 per cent blending by 2025-26.
Indian Express
02-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Sugar industry at crossroad as grain-based ethanol supply looks to take off
Ethanol, once touted to be the saviour of the sugar industry in times of excess production, is fast losing its sheen as grain-based ethanol production threatens to over turn the apple cart. Lower than expected returns, have seen many sugar millers — who had invested heavily in infrastructure for production of ethanol — wean away from producing the fuel additive and instead produce sugar. A press statement issued by Harshwardhan Patil, the president of the National Cooperative Sugar Factories Association, stated that the present price at which oil marketing companies procure ethanol from the sugar mills is not economical. 'Although there is potential to divert up to 40 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of sugar into ethanol this year, only 32 LMTs are expected to be diverted. This shortfall is due to the gap between ethanol prices and the better returns from selling sugar directly in the domestic market. As a result, India's ethanol production capacity of 952 crore litres per year—including 130 crore litres from multi-feed distilleries—is being underused,' he said. In order to help sugar mills avoid overproduction of sugar, the central government had unveiled the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP) in 2017-18. Under the programme, the sugar mills were encouraged to produce ethanol instead of just producing sugar. Marketing companies were to buy ethanol with highest price being paid for ethanol that is produced from sugarcane juice or sugar syrup. The idea behind the programme was to allow mills another source of income and avoid glutting in the sugar market. Along with sugar mills, ethanol was also being produced from food grains as well as maize. Patil in his report stated that the latter has been increasing with sugar mills falling behind. Thus for the ethanol supply year (December to November) 2024-25 sugar based feed stock produced 250 crore litres of ethanol while grain based feed stock produced 650 crore liters of the fuel additive. Infact, the contribution of grain based feed stock has been rising from 0 in 2017-18 to the present figures. 'In the Sugar Year (SY) 2022–23, the sugar industry reached a significant milestone by diverting 43 lakh tonnes of sugar towards ethanol production. This enabled the supply of 369 crore litres of ethanol, which accounted for an impressive 73% of the total ethanol blended with fuel across the country. However, in SY 2023–24, ethanol supply from sugar-based feedstocks declined to 270 crore litres, contributing only 38% to the national blending programme. This downward trend is projected to continue in SY 2024–25, with supply expected to fall further to 250 crore litres, making up just 28% of the total blending target of 900 crore litres,' he said. In view of the problems being faced by the industry, Patil has urged the government to increase the procurement cost of ethanol to reflect the rising cost of sugarcane, maize etc, as well allow for more than 20 per cent blending in petrol.
Mint
02-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Sugar industry seeks ethanol price revision as blending share drops to 28 pc
New Delhi, The sugar industry has demanded a revision of ethanol procurement prices and extension of blending targets beyond 20 per cent, as the sector's contribution to the national ethanol programme has declined sharply from 73 per cent to just 28 per cent. The industry has also demanded accelerated promotion and manufacturing of Flex-Fuel Vehicles to boost ethanol demand and ensure market preparedness for higher blending, National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories said in a statement. The demand was made by the industry delegation, led by Ravi Gupta, Chairman of IFGE's Sugar Bioenergy Group, and expert Member on the Board of NFCSF, in a meeting held at the PMO recently, it said. In 2022-23 season , NFCSF said the sugar industry reached a significant milestone by diverting 43 lakh tonnes of sugar towards ethanol production, enabling the supply of 369 crore litres of ethanol, which accounted for 73 per cent of total ethanol blended with fuel across the country. However, in 2023-24, ethanol supply from sugar-based feedstocks declined to 270 crore litres, contributing only 38 per cent to the national blending programme. "This is projected to fall further to 250 crore litres in 2024-25, making up just 28 per cent of the total blending target of 900 crore litres," it said in a statement. The main reason for this drop is that ethanol procurement prices have not been increased in line with the rise in the Fair and Remunerative Price of sugarcane, making ethanol production less profitable for sugar mills. Although there is potential to divert up to 40 lakh tonnes of sugar into ethanol this year, only 32 lakh tonnes are expected to be diverted. "This shortfall is due to the gap between ethanol prices and better returns from selling sugar directly in the domestic market," NFCSF said. As a result, India's ethanol production capacity of 952 crore litres per year including 130 crore litres from multi-feed distilleries is being under-utilised. The Ethanol Blending Programme has emerged as a vital solution to the longstanding issue of surplus sugar stocks under the National Policy on Biofuels – 2018, which set an ambitious target to divert 60 to 70 lakh tonnes of excess sugar annually towards ethanol production. Since the policy's inception, India's ethanol production capacity has expanded significantly from 518 crore litres in 2018 to 1,800 crore litres in 2025. Correspondingly, the ethanol blending rate with petrol has risen sharply from 4.22 per cent to 18.61 per cent as of April 30, 2025. Sugar production has reached 286.9 lakh tonnes as on April 30 of the ongoing 2024-25 season, out of which 30 lakh tonnes have been diverted for ethanol. The industry has additionally suggested evaluating the possibility of blending ethanol in diesel as a future strategy to expand ethanol use across fuel types. NFCSF noted that diverting sugar to ethanol does not reduce the actual production of sugar but helps to manage surplus sugar stocks, stabilise market prices, improve the financial health of sugar mills, and ensure timely payments to farmers. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
