Pabna sugar mills started production

Pabna Sugar Mill resumed production on Friday and set a target for crushing 65 ,000 tonnes of sugarcane. The target is lower than last year's 80 ,000 tonnes of sugarcane due to poor supply from farmers. Shamsur Rahman Sharif Dilu, lawmaker of Pabna-4 constituency, inaugurated the production of the mill at a programme chaired by Md Lokman Hossain, managing director of the company, on the mill premises. The mill has suffered huge losses since the start of its production in 1997. The company logged Tk 60.75 crore in accumulated losses over the 11 years to 2008. "We will be able to produce 4 ,875 tonnes of sugar in 44 days," said a mill official. Last year the mill produced 4 ,298 tonnes of sugar from 69 ,839 tonnes of sugarcane. Farmers have used 5 ,000 acres of land for sugarcane farming this year, lower than last year's 7 ,000 acres, said Md Kamruzzaman, general manager of agriculture for the sugar mill. Sugarcane requires up to 18 months to be ready for sugar production, which makes farmers less interested in it. They now prefer vegetables and other crops to sugarcane, he added. "We are hopeful of reaching the target this year as we have already encouraged farmers to supply sugarcane continuously," said Hossain.