Sugar output at the state-run sugar mills in Bangladesh is at the lowest point in the decade due to a sharp fall in sugarcane processing, according to the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC), reports The Daily Star.
Md Arifur Rahman Apu, chairman of the BSFIC, said, “After the closure of the six sugar mills, the farmers were unable to cultivate sufficient cane to supply to the sugar mills which has resulted in the lower sugar output.”
Nine sugar mills are operating in the state and they are likely to produce 24,900 tonnes of sugar by crushing 442,000 tonnes of sugarcane this season. The output is 49 per cent down to 48,133 tonnes and 875,802 tonnes in the 2020-21 sugar season, as per the data released by BSFIC.
“The sugar output would increase from this season as the BSFIC will be providing high-yielding seeds invented by the Bangladesh Sugarcrop Research Institute,” he said.
Sugarcane farmers in Panchagarh and Setabganj have discontinued cane cultivation as the sugar mills in their vicinity have shut down.
