Pabna Sugar Mill in Ishwardi upazila under Pabna and Mobarakganj Sugar Mill in Jhenidah district have started sugar production this season, making arrangement for bringing required sugarcane during weekly intermissions amid political agitation like countrywide hartals and blockades.   
Meanwhile, stores of the two mills are packed with huge unsold sugar worth around Tk 100 crore from the production of the previous seasons, much to the worry of mill authorities about space for keeping the new production.  
Pabna Sugar Mill on Friday started sugarcane crushing for production in 2013-14 fiscal year although sugar worth Tk 50 crore from earlier production has remained unsold there, reports our Pabna correspondent. 
There is target to crush 90 thousand tonnes of sugarcane to produce 6.5 thousand tonnes of sugar this season, mill officials said. 
The sugar mill, located at Dashuria of Ishwardi upazila, started commercial operation in 1998-99 fiscal year but it experienced losses from the beginning as the production target could not be reached due to the lack of sufficient sugarcane, mill sources said. 
“At least 2 lakh tonnes of sugarcane is needed to run the mill for three to four months to produce 12 to 15 thousand tonnes of sugar a year. But we could not arrange even half of the sugarcane during last few years,” said Komol Kanti Sarkar, managing director (MD) of Pabna Sugar Mill. 
"The mill has incurred loss of Tk 125 crore during 15 years of commercial production. Farmers also lost interest in sugarcane production due to poor profit," he said. 
“All the production of 2012-13 fiscal year, amounting 9,200 tonnes of sugar, remained stacked in the mill godown as no sugar was sold during the last one year. Most of the workers have not got monthly salary for the last few months due to the situation,” said Ahmed Ali, secretary of workers union of Pabna Sugar Mill.  
Our Jhenidah correspondent reports: Mobarakganj Sugar Mill in the district started production in this years crushing season on December 6 although 9,728 tones of sugar worth Tk 48 crore, from 2011-12 and 2012-13 crushing seasons, are lying unsold in the mill stores. 
Amid financial crisis, the mills authorities failed to properly pay the salaries to the employees in last two years. Even dues to the sugarcane producers remained mostly unpaid, mill sources said.
"As the authorities could not sell any sugar during the last season 9,728 tonnes of sugar worth Tk 48 crore is lying unsold here. The stored sugar is decaying fast. We are now worried about storage of this season's target of 10,500 tonnes of sugar," said Delwar Hossain, MD of Mobarakganj Sugar Mills. 
The MD, however, did not allow this correspondent to take any photograph of the already melting sugar in the mill stores.