5,000 rice mills in North sitting idle for poor supply

This rice mill in Kahalu upazila of Bogra is closed due to lack of supply of paddy. Around 5,000 mills are sitting idle in northern districts.Photo: STAR

About 5,000 rice mills in the northern districts remain either idle or closed while scores face closure due to poor supply and unusual spike in paddy prices.
In eight northern districts, about 4,925 rice mills have already stopped production, turning more than one lakh people unemployed.
Rice-mill owners in the eight districts Bogra, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Joypurhat and Rangpur said hundreds more will also shut down soon as they see no immediate solution to poor paddy supply and soaring prices.
Our Bogra correspondent reported yesterday that 1,500 rice mills have already closed due to poor supply of paddy and lack of money to purchase paddy at high rates.
"Some rice mills which are still running operate only two or three days a week," Amirul Islam, president of Bogra district rice-mill owners' association, told The Daily Star, adding that many other mills will shut in next few days if paddy supply does not show signs of improvement.
In Kahalu, which produces most rice in Bogra, paddy prices increased by Tk 27 to 300 a maund, said upazila rice-mill owners' association president, Ali Ahmed.
Shafiqul Islam, a rice trader of Dhunat upazila, said he needs 100 maunds of paddy a day but does not afford to buy at current rates which rose by Tk 300 a maund.
"So, I've been running my mill on alternate days," he said.
Our Rangpur correspondent said 290 rice mills out of a total of 350 in the district have already closed down due to poor paddy supply.
Jadab Mukherjee, organising secretary of Mahiganj mini rice depot association, said rice-mill closure is the main reason for poor supply of rice to local markets.
Citing low yield of aman paddy as the main cause of shortage of paddy, Ashraful Alam, proprietor of Rafique Rice Mills in Mahiganj, said he would have to close his mill in a few days due to lack of paddy supply.
In Lalmonirhat where there are just about 300 rice mills, all except a few remain inoperative due to poor supply of paddy, said Sheikh Abdul Hamid, president of Lalmonirhat rice-mill owners' association.
Our Dinajpur correspondent reported quoting farmers, mill operators and district food controller office sources that at least 2,500 medium and small rice mills in four northern districts -- Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh and Joypurhat -- remain inoperative during aman harvest due to unusual price hike of paddy and unstable markets.
At least 1 lakh people of these mills are now jobless. Of 1,500 mills in Dinajpur, 1,092 have stopped running.
Eight hundred out of 1,300 mills in Thakurgaon, 300 out of 740 in Joypurhat and 250 out of 455 in Panchagarh remain inoperative during this pick aman harvest season, according to the district mill operator sources.
General secretary of Thakurgaon rice mills operators' association, Mahmud Hossain, said they need at least 150 to 200 maunds of paddy each day to operate each mill but they cannot afford to purchase paddy at an "abnormally high price".
Price of paddy further went up as buyers from other districts gathered there to procure rice, he alleged.
In the previous year, they required at least Tk 1 lakh each day as they purchased a bag of 84 kg paddy at Tk 900 to 950 while the same rice is now selling at Tk 1,700 to 1,750 per bag, requiring at least Tk 2 to 3 lakh a day, he added.
Our Nilphamari correspondent reports: About 335 rice mills of the district are on the verge of closure as they are not getting necessary paddy, according to Omar Ali, a member of district rice-mill owners' association.