2 more public sugar mills likely to stop running

The Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation is not producing any sugar cane under the Faridpur and Rajshahi sugar mills in the next season signalling the impending suspension of crushing at the two sugar mills.

Corporation officials have said that their plan to produce canes for the next season have already been finalised and does not include the two sugar mills following an instruction from the industries ministry.

While suspending cane crushing at six of the 15 state-owned sugar mills over three months ago, the industries ministry sent a letter to the prime minister saying that crushing may be suspended at the sugar mills in the next season.

‘We have excluded the Faridpur and Rajshahi sugar mills from our cane production plan for the next season,’ said Abdul Latif, chief of Cane Production and Expansion, BSFIC.

The sugar cane production season normally begins in October with farmers readying their fields for growing cane by digging water-draining canals and applying agricultural inputs.

Sugar mills provide farmers with cane seeds, fertilisers and pesticides and loan for cultivating cane they target to crush for producing sugar.

The entire process has to begin 10 months to a year before the time of crushing as sugar cane takes a long time to mature.

The planting of cane for the coming season usually ends by December as crushing begins in October every year. Cane is harvested in phases because it must be crushed in 24 hours of harvest for the best output.

But the farmers who grew sugar cane on contract for the Faridpur and Rajshahi mills have received no help this year from the corporation and have been asked to grow the crop on their own.

‘There is an instruction for the two mills to prepare for crushing suspension in the next season,’ Faridpur Sugar Mills managing director Golam Kabir told New Age.

The Faridpur mill authorities have, however, unofficially assured farmers of taking cane from them for other public mills that may be in operation in the next season.

The newly-appointed managing director of Rajshahi Sugar Mills declined to make any comments on the matter.

‘Our abilities are badly strained by decades of losses,’ said BSFIC chairman Arifur Rahman Apu, adding, ‘We can no longer afford to support farmers like before.’

He said that some of the mills had provided limited help to a handful of farmers while they were waiting for  further instructions from the high-ups.

For the next season, the BSFIC authorities have fixed a sugar production target of about 40,000 tonnes, nearly a third of its 1.15 lakh tonnes target for the ongoing season that will end early next month.

The sugar production is to stay around 50,000 tonnes this year, the third lowest in the history of Bangladesh over the last five decades.

BSFIC officials said that the original decision was to suspend cane crushing in eight public sugar mills altogether in December 2020 but the authorities backed out from going by the decision in whole to avoid taking the trouble of transporting cane long distances from the mills where crushing was suspended.

Besides processing own cane, Faridpur Sugar Mills processed a portion of the cane from Kushita Sugar Mills, one of the six suspended mills.

In addition to crushing own cane, Rajshahi Sugar Mills also used some cane sent by North Bengal Sugar Mills, which became overwhelmed crushing own cane and those grown under Pabna Sugar Mills where crushing was suspended.

Cane grown under the six suspended sugar mills had to be distributed among operational mills as the government came up with its crushing suspension plan all of a sudden.

The BSFIC agricultural engineering wing also requisitioned spare parts for vehicles such as tractors and trucks to be used in cultivating and transporting cane next season, excluding the Faridpur and Rajshahi sugar mills.

‘There is a decision that there will be no crushing in the two sugar mills in the next season,’ said industries secretary KM Ali Azam.

‘Let’s see what happens. We’ll follow the prime minister’s instruction,’ he said.

BSFIC’s engineering department has also put aside no budget for repair and maintenance of the Faridpur mill.

The age-old sugar mills need repairing once the crushing is over in order to prepare it for the next season.

The engineering department has, however, set aside Tk 1.23 crore for the Rajshahi mill for repair and maintenance.

About 3,000 regular sugar mill workers have been living in fear of turning jobless ever since the six mills suspended cane crushing though the government has promised no lay-offs.

Another 3,000 seasonal workers at the mills with suspended crushing have already lost their jobs, with small businesses depending on the operation of the mills losing their existence overnight.

The potential suspension of two more sugar mills is likely to push another 2,000 regular and seasonal workers into uncertainty, said leaders.

Besides, at least 20,000 farmers will have their livelihood badly affected and they will have to sort out their farming practice fast.

BSFIC’s agricultural engineering department estimated that the transportation of cane to mills in operation would cost an additional Tk 20 crore.

The corporation has already transported over 50,000 tonnes of cane at roughly Tk 1,000 a tonne by private transporters until Feb 28. It has plans to carry 1.28 lakh tonnes by the end of the season.

It may also need to burn 30 lakh tonnes of fuel for carrying cane, double the quantity of oil used last year.

News Courtesy:

newagebd.net/article/132566/2-more-public-sugar-mills-likely-to-stop-running