Sugarcane crushing from October

FE Team | Published: October 02, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Sonia H Moni
State-run sugar mills will start sugarcane crushing this month as they seek to almost double production of the essential commodity in 2011 financial year, the head of Sugar Corporation said.
Ranjit Kumar Biswas, chairman of Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC), said the government agency expects to raise produce to 118,925 tonnes, from 62,225 tonnes last year.
"Sugarcane was cultivated in around 2,07,000 acres of land this year and we are expecting good quality of sugarcane," he told the FE.
Bangladesh's northern and southern districts are the major sugarcane producing areas. The districts include Natore, Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagar, Rajshahi, Faridpur, Jhenaidaha and Pabna.
In 2010 fiscal, the total production of sugar was 62,225 tonnes from some 1, 62,897 acres of land.
He said, "Among the 15 state owned sugar mills, North Bengal Sugar Mills Ltd will begin crushing sugarcane on October 22 and other mills will follow. The crushing season will continue till February 2011."
Government sugar mills can grind 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes per day.
The chairman said: "At best, 40 to 50 per cent of total harvest of sugarcane goes to 15 state run sugar mills. The rest is used for human consumption, seeds and molasses."
The BSFIC head said the price of sugarcane per mound has been fixed at Tk 80, which was Tk 66 during the last year's harvesting time.
Md Abul Kashem, director planning and engineering of BSFIC, said the corporation has taken steps to modernise the Faridpur Sugar Mills Ltd to boost production.
The modernisation will take place in 15 other state-owned mills.
The local demand of sugar is 1.4 million tonnes but state-run factories can produce only 0.2 million tonnes. The shortfall is met by five refineries that rely on imported raw sugar.