Molasses, sugar unsold
Mills continue to count losses
Rangpur Sugar Mills incurred a loss of around Tk one crore as around 3,000 tonnes of molasses worth Tk two crore remained unsold for the last one year.
Our Gaibandha correspondent reported that a fresh tender was called yesterday for selling 1000 tonnes of molasses but its market price dropped to Tk 220-240 from Tk 586 per maund, much to the worry of the authorities.
In 2010-11 crushing season, the mills produced 2,970 tonnes of molasses. On August 17 last year, the mill authorities called tender for selling 500 tonnes when the price shot up to Tk 586 per maund in the market.
The authorities, however, cancelled the tender for 'unavoidable' reasons although the highest bid stood at Tk 477 per maund.
It was beyond our imagination that the demand of molasses in the market would continued to decline so fast pushing down the price abnormally, said Abdul Khaleque, managing director of the mills.
The labour union leaders of the mills blamed the authorities for creating the 'unwanted' situation.
Meanwhile, Joypurtat Sugar Mill is set to start its 50th cane crushing season today although around 3000 metric tons of sugar produced in last season remained unsold, reports our Dinajpur correspondent.
The largest mill in the country in terms of its cane crushing capacity had incurred losses of Tk160 crore since it started its operation in 1962-63 due to manifold problems, official said.
Moreover, around Tk 2 crore were needed to procure necessary chemicals like diesel and sulpher for starting the crushing season, he said.
They have targeted to crush at least 90,000 tonnes of cane to produce 6,750 tonnes sugar in the upcoming season, he added.
In 2011-12, the mill crushed 64,000 metric tones cane and produced 4,300 tones of sugar, incurring losses of Tk 25 crore. Of them, 1400 tonnes were sold, said the official.
Md Shahid Ullah, managing director of the mill, said at least 2,900 metric tonnes sugar remained unsold.
“Production cost of each kilogram sugar was Tk.104, but the produced sugar is sold at Tk 50 a kg at the mill gate and still we hardly see any buyers†he added.
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