BSFIC starts feasibility study on revamping state sugar mills
TALHA BIN HABIB | Monday, 6 January 2020
The Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) has initiated a feasibility study as part of its plan to modernise at least 15 state-owned sugar mills that are in dire states, both technically and financially.
A meeting held at the ministry of industries (MoI) discussed the prospect of modernising the sugar mills last week with industries minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun in the chair, an official told the FE.
The official said a foreign joint venture company recently started the feasibility study on the decades-old sugar mills belonging to the (BSFIC) under the MoI.
"The modernisation will be done considering the demand of time so that the mills can produce sugar throughout the year," said a director at the BSFIC, who is involved with the corporation's planning and development affairs.
The sugar mills that might be modernised include: Panchagor Sugar Mills Ltd., Shyampur Sugar Mills Ltd., Thakurgaon Sugar Mills Ltd., Joypurhat Sugar Mills Ltd., Setabganj Sugar Mills Ltd., Rangpur Sugar Mills Ltd., Faridpur Sugar Mills Ltd., North Bengal Sugar Mills Ltd., Pabna Sugar Mills Ltd., Rajshahi Sugar Mills Ltd., Natore Sugar Mills Ltd., Zil Bangla Sugar Mills Ltd., Khustia Sugar Mills Ltd., Mobarokganj Sugar Mills Ltd. and Carew & Company (Bangladesh) Ltd.
These mills are solely dependent on the supply of locally-grown sugarcane.
Sources at the BSFIC, however, said many farmers have stopped growing sugarcane since it takes more than a year to harvest the crop. Moreover, the economic return is also far less than that of other crops. As a result, the sugarcane acreage has shrunk by half in two and a half decades to 0.23 million acres in 2016-17, according to the sector insiders.
The annual demand for sugar in the country is now around 1.8 million tonnes. The mills produced 68,952 tonnes of sugar and over 1.8 million tonnes were imported during the fiscal 2018-19'.
The local mills once produced 0.27 million tonnes of sugar.
The production of the mills declined over time due to shortage of sugarcane amid falling cultivation of the crop.
"Existence of the state-owned sugar mills depends on the sugarcane cultivation. We have hiked the sugarcane price in three phases recently to encourage farmers to grow the crop," said a high official at the BSFIC, who is involved with procurement.
He said the mills would be able to reduce the production cost subject to getting the required volume of sugarcane.