Rajshahi Sugar Mill will begin crushing on 13 November. Managing director Masuma Akter Jahan said the target is about 70,000 tonnes of cane and 3,000 tonnes of sugar over 60 days to 13 January, with 3,900 contracted growers supplying the mill.
Each kilogram of sugar is estimated to cost about Tk 300 to produce this season, yet government direction sets the sale price at Tk 125. The mill lost Tk 70 crore last season and about Tk 69 crore the season before, taking accumulated losses to Tk 1,064 crore. Finance general manager Md Saddam Hossain argues the net figure is lower once fixed and movable assets are counted.
Cane is the core problem. The Rajshahi agricultural region grew it on 40,867 hectares in 2016-17 and on 19,340 hectares in 2025-26. The mill's own farm department says growers, facing delays in getting paid among other problems, are making gur (jaggery) instead or switching to more profitable vegetables.
Last season's plan of 67 working days ended after 44 for lack of cane, yielding 3,171 tonnes of sugar against a target of 6,930 tonnes.
This year the cane price has gone up by Tk 11 to Tk 260 a maund, and ordinary growers may supply alongside registered ones. Once crushing starts, no mini crushers or gur-making may run within the mill zone.
The mill employs 1,005 workers and staff. Extraction lasts about two months a year but wages run all year, which is a major cause of the losses.
Photo: Nahid Sultan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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