Lately, there has been an uproar over the price of sugar. But this is just two years ago in the year 2019-20, Sugar Corporation was in trouble with the sale of sugar. At that time, if the government sugar mill set the price of sugar at 50 taka per kg, the private refinery sugar mills made it 45 taka, and if the price of government sugar was 45 taka, the refineries made it 40 taka, so that the losses of the government mills increased. And now, taking advantage of the lack of sugar in the government's house, if the price of government sugar is 80 taka per kg, the price of refineries is 90 taka, if the price of government sugar is 90 taka, the sugar of private refineries is 110 taka - this is called free market economy and corporate exploitation!

Industrial institutions in developing countries like our country have to survive by facing various national and international conspiracies. It was going like this, the government sugar mill in Independence North Bangladesh has a record of maximum sugar production of 2 lakh 70 thousand metric tons and minimum of 45 thousand metric tons of sugar. No mill was shut down that day despite producing a minimum of only 45,000 MT of sugar. However, in the 2019-20 season, 8 out of 15 sugar mills were closed without any discussion with the stakeholders despite the highest production of 82140 million tons of sugar in the last 5 seasons. Sugar production for the last 5 seasons including the season of mill closure was as follows;

2015-16 season 58219 mt

2016-17 season 59984 mt

2017-18 season 68562 mt

2018-19 season 68952 mt

2019-20 season 82140 mt

Here it is seen that out of the last 5 seasons more sugar was produced in 2020, but 8 mills were closed in that year.

However, two mills out of the 8 closed mills were kept operational later on by the special initiative of the Minister of Industries. Accordingly, currently 9 out of 15 mills are operational, 6 are closed. It is said that after coming on deputation for 8-9 months and talking about the so-called losses, the then chairman grade-1 of the corporation rose up and then misled two officials of the Ministry of Industry and the Hon'ble Prime Minister's office and shut down 8 sugar mills. Many people related to the sugar mill think that the Grade-1 chairman took this step suddenly without any plan to protect the interests of foreign countries and private refinery owners as a beneficiary. It should be noted that there were once 17 sugar mills in Bangladesh, but due to lack of utility, Kaliachapara and Deshbandhu sugar mills were transferred to private ownership in the eighties based on certain policies.

Recently, it is known from various sources that steps are being taken by the Ministry of Industry and Hon'ble Prime Minister's Office to operate the sugar mills profitably. The current Honorable Industry Secretary Zakia Sultana is taking initiative and is running around the Mill Zone area. The current chairman is also very positive for the sugar industry.

Time has passed. There are mountains of problems, it will take a lot of work and time to overcome them. Sugarcane plantation once closed and re-planting is very difficult. One truckload of rice seeds can cultivate 1500 acres of paddy, and one truckload of sugarcane seeds can cultivate only 3 acres. A sugar mill needs about 8-10 thousand acres of sugarcane plantation to run well. All the sugar mills need to run approximately 20 million tons of sugarcane, where in the last season of 2021-22 sugarcane was found only 4 lakh 42 thousand tons with which sugar was produced only 24 thousand 500 tons! In the 2019-20 season, instead of 82,000 tons, only one season later, the people of the country have to pay for the production of 24,000 tons of sugar, the lowest in the history of the country, by eating sugar at 120 taka instead of 50 taka!!

Although the sugar industry appears to be loss-making, but saving valuable foreign exchange and saving thousands of crores of rupees from consumers' pockets, this industry can be termed beneficial and public relations for the country even if it is not profitable.  

@In consciousness - Jahid Ali Ansary

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