Chodavaram cooperative sugar factory in Andhra Pradesh has revised its crushing target this season owing to a drop in sugarcane production.
The mill last season had crushed 530,000 tonne cane but this time it has reduced it to 518,000 tonne. "However, we would be able to crush only around 475,000 tonne by the end of this season," said M Surya Bhagavan, managing director, Chodavaram Sugar Factory.
Nilam cyclone had delayed sugarcane crop by two-three weeks in this region apart from unfavourable weather conditions. Normally farmers get 33-34 tonne sugarcane per acre, but this year, it has declined to 25-28 tonne, he added. Till now, the mill had crushed 320,000 tonne and expects another 150,000 tonne by the end of the season. "The present recovery percentage is 9.84 and we are confident to increase this to 10 per cent by the end of the season," he said.
It has also cleared all its dues and is now debt-free. The company had taken Rs 60 crore last season.
He said they had 250,000 sugar bags in stock and were awaiting government's decision to sell these in the open market. The open market prices have fallen to Rs 30,000 per tonne compared with Rs 34,000 a few months ago and is likely to fall by another Rs 2,000-3,000 per tonne over the next two to three months, according to him.
However, the mill was getting attractive price for molasses. It sold molasses at Rs 9,00-1,500 per tonne last season and this year the price was Rs 2,100 per tonne. "Other state distillery operators are buying our stock by paying another Rs 3,000 taxes per tonne," he said.
Chodavaram is expected to produce 20,000 tonne molasses this season. Apart from this, the factory had supplied 9.9 million units of power to the state grid from its captive power plant. It was paying Rs 2,000 to farmers for cane supply per tonne, he said, adding factories in Visakhapatnam district, Anakapalli, YetiKoppaka and Thandava factories were paying Rs 1,765, Rs 1,900 and Rs 1,800 respectively.
