Dinajpur mills to start sugarcane crushing on Dec 2

Joypurhat Sugar Mill and Setabganj Sugar Mill in Dinajpur will start sugarcane crushing for the season on December 2 amid fears of failure to achieve the target due falling sugarcane production.
In the last two years, both mills failed to attain the cane crushing target, officials said.
"We expect to attain the crushing target this year as the government increased cane price to Tk 100 from Tk 88 a maund this year," said Shahid Ullah, managing director of Joypurhat Sugar Mill.
Setabganj Sugar Mill started crushing sugarcane in 1982-83 while Joypurhat mill started crushing in 1962. The two mills are burdened with an accumulated loss of Tk 90 crore and Tk 104 crore respectively since inception.
"Setabganj Sugar mill incurred a loss of Tk 14.87 crore in 2010-11 crushing season," said Md Mainul Ahmed, assistant general manager of the mill.
An official of Joypurhat mill said it lost Tk 12 crore last season for its failure to attain crushing targets.
Last season, the mill produced around 6,800 tonnes of sugar by crushing nearly one lakh tonnes of sugarcane, the official said. The recovery rate was 6.89 percent and the mill was in operations for 67 days, he added.