Organic brown sugar production can be the savior of the state-owned Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC).
In a move to diversify its product basket, the sinking state entity produced 12 tonnes of brown sugar in Zeal Bangla Sugar Mills Ltd (ZBSM) in Dewanganj under Jamalpur during 2020-21 crushing season.
The item was sold at Tk 150 per kg against its production cost of Tk 75 per kg. The BSFIC was able to sell the whole lot of brown sugar, the officials concerned told the FE.
Due to growing demand for various organic products, brown sugar production appeared to be a profitable venture for the corporation, which has been making loss for the last two decades.
But interestingly, the BSFIC stopped production of brown sugar in the latest season that ended in this March.
When asked about the reason, Md Ashraf Ali, who steered the drive to produce brown sugar in the ZBSM as its managing director, said the production was stopped after his tenure.
After the departure of Mr Ashraf, now a director of the BSFIC, another official joined the ZBSM as MD. The new MD opted to discontinue brown sugar production, citing shortage of skilled hands for the job.
However, the corporation high-ups said they are planning to run production of the item in a big scale.
BSFIC Chairman Arifur Rahman Apu told the FE that brown sugar production can bring profit to the ailing entity.
"We have conducted a survey, and found that the item has huge demand at home and abroad." The corporation is in talks with the ministry concerned to launch a project for big-scale production of brown sugar.
He admitted that there is no alternative to diversification of products to save the state-owned sugar entity.
People involved in the ZBSM production process told the FE that brown sugar was produced from pure sugarcane juice after crashing crop.
The clean juice was put on heat in big pan, and after a certain period it started thickening. After cooling the thick juice turned into brown sugar. The product was hundred per cent organic, they added.
Experts said the BSFIC can produce a huge quantity of brown sugar at a lower cost than white sugar.
The size of global brown sugar market is over US$ 20 billion. It is estimated to reach $26 billion by 2025, as the market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.0 per cent.
The BSFIC, having 16 sugar mills in a sugarcane growing country, has high potentials to export sugarcane-related items, industry insiders said.
The export would also help the BSFIC, which last year faced a loss of around Tk 10 billion, to become profitable, they opined.
Presently, the production cost of sugar in the BSFIC mills is over Tk 140 a kg, which is much higher than its selling price. This huge gap makes the mills incur a substantial loss every year.As the production cost of brown sugar is much lower than its market price, the project to produce the item can be highly profitable.
At present, brown sugar - imported from Malaysia - is being sold at over Tk 355 a kg in local market. According to reports, a local producer in Fulbaria under Mymensingh is producing organic brown sugar in a small quantity.
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