3.3.3. Sugar Industry

The sugar industry is the second most important agro-based industry in the country. India is the largest producer of both sugarcane and cane sugar. The industry provides employment for more than 4 lakh persons directly and a large number of farmers indirectly. Sugar industry is a seasonal industry because of the seasonality of raw materials. As Sugarcane is a weight-losing crop, Sugar factories hence, are located within the cane producing regions.

Maharashtra is the leading sugar producer in the country and produces more than one-third of the total production of the sugar in the country. Uttar Pradesh is the second largest producer of sugar. The sugar factories are concentrated in two belts – the Ganga-Yamuna doab and the tarai region. In the southern India, sugar mills are located in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The other States which produce sugar are Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Sugar Industry is a highly localized industry. The salient features for its localized nature are- (1) Sugar cane is the chief raw material used for making sugar. (2) Sugar cane dries up quickly after harvesting. It can neither be stored nor kept in the field after the crop matures. (3) There should be no gap between harvesting and crushing of sugar cane. (4) Sugar cane is a bulky raw material and only about 9 to 12 tonnes of sugar is produced from 100 tonnes of cane (5) Transportation of sugar cane is costly. To reduce this cost sugar mills are established in sugar cane growing areas. (6) Sugar cane is generally transported through animal driven transport or tractor trailers. Therefore most of the sugar mills are installed within 20 km from the cane growing area. (7) Sugar mills have no problem of fuel because the bagasse of sugar cane can be used for heating the juice or for generating electricity. The entire energy requirements of a sugar mill are met through electricity generated with using bagasse as fuel.