Thakurgaon Sugar Mills shut for want of sugarcane

Thakurgaon Sugar Mills suspended its operation on Tuesday, after operating 67 days in the current season, for want of sugarcane.
The mill started operation on December 2 last year to produce 6,300 tonnes of sugar by crushing 90,000 tonnes of sugarcanes during its 75-day operation period, Managing Director (MD) of the mill Sibendranath Sarcar told this correspondent yesterday.
However, the mill produced about 4,800 tonnes of sugar by crushing 79,486 tonnes sugarcanes in the last 67 days with a recovery rate of 6.04, the MD said.
During the operation, the mill was forced to stop operation for about 40 hours due to mechanical faults, officials said.
As the molasses is sold at Tk. 70 per kg while the sugarcane at Tk 55 in the local markets, farmers became interested to produce molasses for instant profit. And this has put the mill into sugarcane crisis, they said.
The mill authorities purchased sugarcane at Tk. 100 per maund while the farmers sold each maund of sugarcane at Tk. 120 to molasses producers, sources said.
Last season, the mill produced 6,558 tonnes of sugar by crushing one lakh 3000 tonnes of sugarcanes with recovery rate 6.38 percent.
According to sources, the farmers have cultivated sugarcane on 8,541 acres of land against the target of 10,500 acres.
Earlier in the current season, two other sugar mills in northern districts of Joypurhat and Natore also met the same fate for want of sugarcane.