The Chodavaram Cooperative Sugar mill saw an increase in sugarcane crushing by one lakh tonne during the 2006-07 crushing season as compared with the last season. |
Chodavaram boasts of being the largest sugar mill in the cooperative sector in Andhra Pradesh. |
|
During the current season till date, the mill crushed 5 lakh tonne of sugarcane as against 4.06 lakh tonne during the last season. Another 40,000-50,000 tonne of sugarcane is expected to come to the mill by end of this crushing season. |
|
S Rama Gangi Reddy, managing director, Chodavaram Sugar, said the mill could crush more in 2006-07 as sugarcane production increased significantly in this region following favourable weather conditions in 2006. About 65 per cent of sugarcane growing area in the region is under rainfed. |
|
Last year, due to timely rains, the average sugarcane production increased to 19 tonne per acre as against the normal average production of 16 tonne. |
|
"During the current season so far we have produced 5.03 lakh bags (each bag contains 100 kg) of sugar with 10.35 per cent recovery as against 4.10 lakh bags with 10.50 per cent recovery during the entire last season. But due to bad marketing condition about 4.5 lakh bags are still lying in the godowns," he said. |
|
Chodavaram also produces 14 Mw power, of which it consumes 50 per cent for running the factory and the other 50 per cent it sells to APGenco. This season, because of higher crushing, its power generation too increased by 30 lakh units, and had earned the company a revenue of Rs 4 crore. |
|
Chodavaram mill posted a net loss of Rs 45 crore in 2002-03 crushing season. Post modernisation, capacity expansion, and better managerial practices, it earned more than Rs 42 crore net profit over the last three crushing seasons and repaid loans of Rs 20 crore to different financial institutions, Reddy said. |
|
|
|