Maharashtra sugar mills plan to divert enough juice to ethanol to avoid sugar surplus

In India, the Economic Times reports Maharashtra sugar mills are wasting no time to take advantage of the government’s deregulation of ethanol feedstock, aiming to divert as much sugarcane juice to fuel as possible to limit the possibility of an unwieldy sugar surplus. Oil marketing companies recently tendered for 3.5 billion liters of ethanol for blending with gasoline, with sugar mills offering 3.22 billion liters of supplies. How much ethanol Maharashtra plans to supply wasn’t reported nor how much of the sugarcane crushed by the 149 sugar mills that have already begun crushing this season will be diverted to ethanol.