Established in 1956 with a day-to-day skill of 1,500 tonnes, Thakurgaon Sugar Mills produced upright 3,323 tonnes of sugar in FY24 – a lot beneath its annual skill of 15,240 tonnes – adding Tk66 crore to its already staggering gathered losses of Tk792 crore.
This fight mirrors the challenges confronted by all 15 dispute-owned sugar mills, careworn by decades-weak equipment and unavailable spare parts on account of defunct producers.
Adding to these woes is the inviting decline in sugar extraction rates – the percentage of sugar that can also be extracted from sugarcane for the duration of the milling process.
Remaining fiscal, the fee hit a ancient low of 5.07% closing 300 and sixty five days, per files from the Bangladesh Sugar and Meals Industries Corporation (BSFIC) and the Bangladesh Sugarcane Examine Institute (BSRI).
Specialists talked about this decline is on account of of outdated instruments, low-yield sugarcane forms, awful fertiliser exhaust, premature harvesting, and inefficiencies in the manufacturing process, worsening the industry’s disaster.
Despite years of losses, the interval in-between authorities plans to reopen closed mills.
Industries Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan, for the duration of a mid-November visit to Setabganj Sugar Mill in Dinajpur, announced that steps were underway to resume manufacturing of the mill.
The authorities has already shaped a committee to expedite the formula, he announced.
Also, the industries ministry established a supervisory committee in October to oversee sugarcane crushing and cultivation activities, namely for six rapidly suspended mills, talked about the adviser.
Setabganj Mill is amongst the six dispute sugar mills that were closed in December 2020 amid a heavy monetary burden. The others are Pabna Sugar Mills, Shyampur Sugar Mills in Rangpur, Panchagarh Sugar Mills, Rangpur Sugar Mills, and Kushtia Sugar Mills.
Maintaining the mills closed isn’t any longer a retort. They incur losses even when closed. Therefore, the draw is to retain the mills operational and focal point on lowering the losses.
Md Anowar Kabir, secretary, Bangladesh Sugar and Meals Industries Corporation
Md Anowar Kabir, secretary at the Bangladesh Sugar and Meals Industries Corporation, has confirmed that efforts are underway to reopen closed mills in repeat to minimize losses.
He instructed The Industry Usual that the mills were shut down for the duration of the old authorities’s tenure per directives from the Top Minister’s Office (PMO).
“Despite a couple of makes an strive to reopen them, the dearth of approval from the PMO had performed with out this. Alternatively, the Chief Adviser’s Office has issued directives to restart manufacturing, and the industries ministry is actively working on this,” he talked about.
When asked whether or no longer the mills would possibly possibly perchance change into viable given the contemporary low sugar extraction fee from sugarcane, he talked about, “Maintaining the mills closed isn’t any longer a retort. They incur losses even when closed. Therefore, the draw is to retain the mills operational and focal point on lowering the losses.”
He added, “A taskforce modified into once shaped to reopen the closed mills, and so they’ve submitted a file to the Chief Adviser’s Office, recommending the reopening of the mills.”
Referring to techniques to minimize losses, he talked about, “Ensuring a ample supply of raw gives and bettering the usual of sugarcane is a notable. If the mills purpose for one-third of the 300 and sixty five days, around 120 days, this would possibly possibly occasionally well even be that you just are going to be ready to have confidence to assemble them profitable. That is the draw in progress.”
Md Shamsul Arefin, senior scientist and head of the Physiology and Sugar Chemistry Division at the BSRI, instructed TBS that this would possibly possibly perchance no longer be that you just are going to be ready to have confidence to assemble the sugar mills profitable by relying exclusively on sugar manufacturing from sugarcane.
To take care of these points and assemble the mills profitable, Arefin proposed modernisation of the mills, along with the establishment of distilleries or the manufacturing of agro-based products.
“If mills would possibly possibly perchance purpose for a minimal of 4 months a 300 and sixty five days, sugar manufacturing would possibly possibly perchance amplify,” he talked about, noting that the mills for the time being bustle for most attention-grabbing two to two and a half months on account of a lack of raw gives.
Sugar extraction hits the bottom
Available files from Bangladesh Sugar and Meals Industries Corporation and the Bangladesh Sugarcane Examine Institute presentations closing 300 and sixty five days’s sugar extraction fee of 5.07% modified into once the bottom since Bangladesh’s independence.
In the 1971-72 fiscal 300 and sixty five days, the sugar extraction fee modified into once 5.92%, while the final observe modified into once FY90 at 8.77%, per the BSRI, which conducts study on sugarcane, palmyra palm, date palm, and sugar beet – key raw gives for sugar, molasses, and cane juice.
In Bangladesh, sugar has historically been produced by dispute-owned mills thru sugarcane extraction, while the personal sector, which now dominates the industry, produces sugar by importing and refining raw sugar.
The authorities operates 15 sugar mills beneath the Sugar and Meals Industries Corporation, most of which were established before independence and nationalised after liberation. Of the 15 mills, nine were constructed for the duration of the Pakistan generation, three before that, and three after independence.
Alternatively, on account of the low extraction fee, dispute-bustle mills face notable annual losses, compounded by excessive operational costs, staffing costs, loans, and mounted costs.
The gathered losses of these authorities-owned mills salvage reached around Tk11,500 crore till FY24, per an prognosis of their annual reviews.
A ways gradual neighbours
In India and Pakistan, the sugar extraction fee from sugarcane is around 10%, virtually double the fee in Bangladesh, per files from the BSRI.
Sugar extraction rates in India’s Maharashtra, Bihar, Haryana, and West Bengal regions range from 9.46% to 10.02%. In Pakistan, Sindh achieves a 9.90% fee, while Punjab’s fee is 9.70%.
As of 15 January 2024, India’s life like sugar recovery fee stood at 9.51%, per ChiniMandi, a files and files platform for the sugar and allied industries.
Moreover, Bangladesh’s sugarcane manufacturing stands at 46 tonnes per hectare, significantly decrease than the over 70 tonnes considered in neighbouring countries.
Senior Scientist Shamsul Arefin explained that the disparity is on account of of outdated infrastructure and miserable farming practices in Bangladesh. “The mills in Bangladesh are weak, weak, and shortage modernisation, which hampers efficient sugar extraction.”
He also celebrated that sugarcane in Bangladesh is in most cases planted slack, ensuing in early harvesting before it fully matures. Moreover, awful fertiliser exhaust, such as delayed software program of urea, extra contributes to the decrease yields.
“Farmers continuously comply with urea indiscriminately to amplify weight, as mills buy sugarcane by weight,” Arefin talked about, adding that sugarcane must peaceable be beaten interior 24-36 hours of harvesting, however mills continuously lengthen processing, which reduces sugar hiss material.
31,000 tonnes of sugar for Tk1,300cr
In step with files from the BSFIC, the nation’s sugar mills produced around 31,000 tonnes of sugar in FY24, while the annual quiz exceeds 2 million tonnes.
The complete stamp for the 16 mills – comprising 15 sugar mills and one engineering company which produces and repairs machines of the sugar mills – modified into once Tk1,298 crore.
Carew & Firm, which runs every a sugar and distillery unit, accounted for roughly Tk500 crore of the full stamp. It’s miles the appropriate entity beneath the BSFIC to file a income, reaching over Tk80 crore in earnings.
Despite the gargantuan costs, the mills earned most attention-grabbing Tk716.92 crore, ensuing in a lack of Tk581.90 crore. With the contemporary stamp constructing, the manufacturing stamp of sugar exceeds Tk400 per kilogram.
The dispute sugar mill’s grim image modified into once highlighted in the Industries Ministry’s annual file for FY24.
Printed in early October, the file finds that the mills’ sugar manufacturing closing fiscal modified into once correctly beneath the draw of forty five,010 tonnes. This follows a ancient low of 21,000 tonnes in the old 300 and sixty five days. Moreover, the sugar extraction fee modified into once projected at 6.43% however reached most attention-grabbing 5.07%.
Mills offered 20,641 tonnes of sugar, a ways brief of the forty five,010-tonne draw. Income from sugar sales modified into once expected to complete Tk450 crore, however most attention-grabbing Tk255.86 crore modified into once completed, meeting upright 56.85% of the draw.
Md Shahjahan Kabir, managing director of Thakurgaon Sugar Mills, instructed TBS that on account of a lack of raw gives, they were unable to purpose the mill at paunchy skill.
“To maintain operations, we want excessive-yield forms of sugarcane,” he celebrated. “The mill’s equipment would possibly possibly perchance be very outdated. Modernisation is a notable to toughen output, however this has no longer yet been utilized.”
