National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories has asked sugar mills to advance the cane crushing operations for 2017-18 (Oct-Sep) to early or mid-October to maintain adequate supply of sugar in the market. Mills start crushing cane by the end of October or the beginning of November. Demand for the sweetener is expected to rise significantly during major festivals starting from Rakshabandhan on Aug 7 and continuing till Christmas on Dec 25. Early crushing “would help availability of new sugar production to augment stock availability in the market which would help maintain current level of sugar prices. The sugar body had asked mills to offload maximum stocks to help curtail the soaring prices.