India has achieved a landmark by hitting 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol in November 2025, months ahead of the national target.
Yet the ethanol segment of the sugar industry faces a brewing crisis: massive surplus production capacity, reduced sugar-based allocations, storage bottlenecks, and stagnant procurement prices amid surging sugarcane output.
The country’s ethanol distillation capacity stands at approximately 1,990 crore litres as of November 2025, according to the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD). This far exceeds the current demand of around 1,050 crore litres for the Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025-26 (November 2025–October 2026).
