Not viable to run Dhuri sugar mill, management tells govt

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, January 18

The management of Bhagwanpura Sugar Mill at Dhuri has said that the shrinking area under sugarcane crop in the vicinity of the mill has made the running of the mill unviable.

Low sugar recovery

• Officials in the Agriculture Department said sugar recovery in private mills this year is 9.08 per cent, while in cooperative sugar mills it’s 8.75 per cent
• This is much lower than sugar recovery of 9.7 per cent last year. It is expected that as mid and late sugarcane varieties come for crushing, the sugar recovery will go up

During a meeting convened by Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian here today, officials of the sugar mill said that it was impossible to run it. They reportedly said that only if the mill received 35 lakh quintals of sugarcane, did the crushing operations become viable for them. This year only 1,860 acres are under sugarcane, leading to cane production of only five lakh quintals.

Representatives of the sugarcane-growing farmers from Dhuri, including Jaswinder Singh and Harjeet Singh, who have been protesting against the closure of the sugar mill this season, were also present in the meeting. They were assured by the Agriculture Department officers that the sugarcane produced by cane growers would continue to be sent to Mukerian, Budhewal and Amloh sugar mills for crushing. Two lakh quintals of cane from Dhuri has already been sent to the three mills for crushing, even though just one third of the cane crushing season is over.

The Dhuri mill is the second private sugar mill in the state to have shut shop in recent years. The Phagwara sugar mill, then owned by Jarnail Singh Wahid, had also stopped sugar production, though it is again crushing cane now.

Official sources say that due to the area under sugarcane reducing, frequent hikes in SAP of cane to keep farmers in good humour, low sugar recovery and comparatively static sugar prices, the private sugar mills in the state are unable to bear the losses. Though the state government is sharing a part of the enhanced SAP, which is the highest in the country at Rs 391 per quintal, the mills are still claiming losses. The shutting down of the mill is also significant as 70 per cent of sugarcane in the state is crushed by the private mills, while only 30 per cent of the crushing is done by cooperative sugar mills. This year, till January 14, six private sugar mills in the state have crushed 146.36 lakh quintals of cane and paid Rs 296.31 crore of the Rs 565.30 crore due to farmers. The nine cooperative sugar mills have crushed 65.67 lakh quintals of cane and paid Rs 135.53 crore of the total payable amount of Rs 256.74 crore.