ALL the state-owned sugar mills in Bangladesh, except Carew and Company, have been incurring losses for years together. It is very difficult to find when did the mills earn profit last? In local retail market, sugar produced in state-owned mills is selling at Tk.68 per kg now and sugar produced from imported liquid unrefined sugar juice is selling at the same price at retail level. Interestingly molasses made from sugarcane juice in indigenous method in households is selling at Tk.80 per kg in retail market. Most of people in the countryside of Bangladesh prefer to use molasses to make sweet dishes.
The state-owned sugar mills cannot carry out production for a desired period due to shortage of sugarcane. The government has enacted a rule prohibiting use of power crashers to extract juice from sugarcane in certain areas surrounding sugar mills to ensure increased supply of sugarcane in sugar mills. Despite introduction of such a rule, the state-owned sugar mills are incurring huge losses. The market price of molasses is 50 per cent higher than the sugar produced in mills. So the Corporation should dedicate at least one of its mills on experimental basis to produce popular molasses. The production cost of molasses will definitely be less than that of sugar. As the selling price of molasses is higher than sugar, the sugar mills will earn more. On the other hand, when supply of molasses increases the price will come down to the benefit of the consumers. In a situation like this the government should dedicate at least one sugar mill to produce molasses instead of sugar.
Md. Ashraf Hossain
8/A, Ramna, Dhaka-1000.
[email protected]
