KCP Sugars eyes Rs 250 cr turnover

KCP Sugar and Industries Corporation Limited, one of the biggest sugar-manufacturing units in Asia, is targeting a turnover of Rs 250 crore for the current financial year. The Chennai-based company has its sugar plant in Vuyyur, Krishna district.

The company's Rs 15-crore cogen power generation plant, set up with Tata Energy Research Institute (Teri) know-how, is expected to go on stream in October 2005, and start supplying six mega watt power to APTransco.

Speaking to Business Standard, KCP Sugars general manager K Suryanarayana Rao said, "The firm is targeting a turnover of Rs 250 crore for 2004-05, an increase of 25 per cent over last year's turnover. This season, the company expects to crush 10 lakh tonnes of sugarcane at Vuyyur unit in Krishna district and 3.5 lakh tonnes of cane at Lakshmipuram factory. Experts of the two factories are guiding around 13,500 farmers at every stage of cultivation and the latter are confident of beating their past sugarcane harvest record of 38-41 tonnes per acre, which is so far the highest in the state."

Earlier, the company had said that it was investing Rs 10 crore to double the production capacity of its distillery complex. By February 2005, it is targeting to double its daily production capacity to 50 kilo litres (kl) each for rectified spirit, ethanol and extra neutral alcohol.

The company, which also manufactures bio-compost and bio-fertilisers, is producing for the first time in India a phosphorous solubulizer called 'Microrizza' for the farmers. The bio-fertiliser dissolves phosphorous and micronutrients in the soil, directly supplies them to the roots, increases the water-holding capacity of plants and makes them pest-resistant. The project is estimated to cost Rs 2 crore.

The company is formulating new technologies and concepts indigenously thro-ugh its Rs 5 crore modern research and development wing.

"KCP Biological Pest Control Laboratory supplies predator 'Trichograma Chiconis' to farmers for killing pests, fungi and pathogens. Around 90 per cent of the farmers, who have been doing contract farming with the company, use bio-fertilisers "� zospirallum (nitrogen fixing bacteria) and phospho bacteria 'Vari-indicum'"� that are manufactured by us," Suryanarayana said.

KCP, in an innovative programme, has also sunk 50 'recharge borewells' that prevent excess rainwater from going waste into the sea. These borewells collect water and allow it to seep into the soil in which the cane crop is grown.

This water can be pumped out by the recharge borewell itself or any another borewell sunk nearby. If a recharge borewell is sunk for every five acres, the problem of depletion of groundwater levels would be solved, he added.