Poor cane arrivals hit operations, crushing at Naraingarh Sugar Mills likely to end in a week

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, March 17

Owing to poor sugarcane arrivals, the ongoing crushing season at the Naraingarh Sugar Mills is expected to come to an end within a week.

Though it has issued its first notice, requesting farmers to deliver their remaining sugarcane as the crushing will be stopped tomorrow, mill officials said it was just to motivate farmers to offload their stocks. However, they admitted that they were likely to stop crushing in a week due to poor arrivals.

Against the daily requirement of 40,000 quintals, the mill has been receiving just around 20,000 quintals a day, and the mill authorities said it was not viable to continue the operations with such poor arrivals.

Though it is a private sugar mills, it was being run under the supervision of the Haryana Government since 2019.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) spokesman and sugarcane farmer from Naraingarh, Rajiv Sharma said, “The farmers’ dues remain pending with the sugar mills for months, due to its poor financial conditions and a large number of farmers get payment only after the next crushing season begins. While the state advised price (SAP) for the season is Rs 386 a quintal, the crushers have been offering Rs 400-425 a quintal, and that too in cash payment, following which the farmers have diverted a portion of their produce to crushers instead of delivering at the sugar mills.”

Ever since the farmers came to know about the attachment of property of the mills, they have apprehension that the mills would be closed soon and their payment might get stuck. The government should increase the SAP of sugarcane and also ensure that dues were cleared in 14 days to ensure that the farmers kept delivering their produce to the mills, he added.

Last year around 48.50 lakh quintal of sugarcane was crushed, and this year, the mill had a target to crush around 50 lakh quintal. So far, 40 lakh quintal sugarcane has been crushed and the season may come to an end with the crushing of around 42 lakh quintal. Last year the season ended in April.

Naraingarh SDM Yash Jaluka, who also holds the charge of CEO and executive director of the sugar mills, said, “There are several factors, including farmers’ apprehension, untimely rains that broke momentum, and diversion of sugarcane to crushers behind the lower availability of stocks. Efforts were made to motivate the farmers, following which an improvement in arrivals was witnessed. We have been identifying the farmers and villages from where the major drop in arrivals have been recorded and the cane department will hold meetings with them so that the issues could be resolved before the next season.”

Shortfall of 20k quintals a day

Against a daily requirement of 40,000 quintals, the mill has been receiving only around 20,000 quintals a day, and the mill authorities said it was not viable to continue the operations with such poor arrivals