Production at Thakurgaon Sugar Mills has stopped for lack of sugarcane. As a result, the mill cannot meet its sugar production target for the current crushing season, and, as in the past few years, it will have to count losses running into crores of taka.

On the afternoon of Friday (31 January), the mill's managing director Sakhawat Hossain declared the end of the 62nd cane crushing season at Thakurgaon Sugar Mills Limited, the district's only heavy industry.

According to mill sources, although the 62nd crushing season began, the authorities had to end it two months before the scheduled date. This season's crushing ended after only 42 days of operation. The targets for the season were 65,000 tonnes of cane and 47,000 tonnes of sugar, but in the 42 days of operation 53,730 tonnes of cane were crushed and 3,201 tonnes of sugar produced.

The mill's deputy production manager, Hasanuzzaman, said cane had been grown on 14,000 acres in the district this year, but the mill had to be shut for lack of enough cane.

Although crushing ended early, the loss this time is smaller than in other years, he said. He added that because cane growers were paid on time this year, they will increase their cane acreage next time.

The 62nd crushing season ended with the mill carrying the burden of a Tk 79 crore loss from the last financial year.

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.