CCSF clocks Rs 95cr turnover in 2004-05

Chodavaram Cooperative Sugar Factory (CCSF) in Visakhapatnam district, the largest cooperative sugar mill in the state, has registered a 48 per cent growth in turnover in the fiscal ended March 31 2005.

The sugar factory posted a turnover of close to Rs 95 crore through sales of sugar, power and molasses in 2004-05 as compared to Rs 65 crore achieved in the previous year, thus representing a growth of about 48 per cent.

Speaking to Business Standard, CCSF managing director S Rama Gangi Reddy said, "Collective efforts by the management, workers and sugarcane suppliers, and the increase in sugar prices were the main factors that drove our turnover to reach the Rs 95-crore mark."

CCSF's accumulated losses piled up to nearly Rs 45 crore by March 31, 2003 due to inefficient management. The factory reduced the losses to Rs 11 crore by this fiscal.

Of the total accumulated losses, CCSF recovered about Rs 34 crore by achieving Rs 14 crore surplus in 2003-04 and Rs 20 crore surplus in 2004-05.

CCSF crushed 3.83 lakh tonnes of sugarcane and produced 3.87 lakh bags of sugar (each bag contains 100 kgs) by achieving a 10.02 per cent recovery in 2003-04.

In 2004-05, it crushed 4.76 lakh tonnes of sugarcane and produced 4.98 lakh bags of sugar with a 10.48 per cent recovery.

Reddy said that during the 2003-04 fiscal, the factory got an average price of Rs 14 per kg of sugar whereas it received Rs 15 per kg of sugar in 2004-05.

The sugar factory has a crushing capacity of 4,000 tonnes per day. It achieved an 88 per cent capacity utilisation in 2004-05 and produced about 20,000 tonnes of molasses as by product.