Carrying a staggering loan burden of Tk 656.75 crore, Jamalpur’s Dewanganj upazila-based Zeal Bangla Sugar Mill has commenced its 68th sugarcane crushing season for the 2025–26 fiscal year.
The mill inaugurated its crushing operations on Friday afternoon with a discussion meeting and special prayers held at the cane carrier yard.
According to media sources, the inaugural event was organised by the mill authorities. Following the programme, crushing officially began as sugarcane was fed into the mill.
Rashidul Hasan, Additional Secretary and Chairman of the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC), addressed the programme virtually as the chief guest.
The discussion was presided over by the mill’s Managing Director, Tariqul Alam. Among others, Joint Secretary and Director of Sugarcane Development and Research Dr Abdul Alim Khan, BSFIC’s Dr Zebun Nahar Ferdous, Assistant Commissioner (Land) Mahamudul Islam, Dewanganj Model Police Station officer-in-charge Nazmul Hasan, as well as leaders of local political parties and veteran sugarcane farmers, spoke on the occasion.
According to officials, the mill aims to crush 70,000 metric tonnes of sugarcane over 78 days this season, targeting a production of 4,090 metric tonnes of sugar.
The expected sugar recovery rate has been set at 7 percent. Daily crushing capacity is projected at 1,016 tonnes of sugarcane with an expected daily sugar output of 10,150 tonnes.
Established in 1957 with financial and technical assistance from the then Pakistan and New Zealand governments, Zeal Bangla Sugar Mills Limited is one of the country’s oldest and most historically significant heavy industrial enterprises.
Originally named Zeal Pak Sugar Mills Limited, it was renamed Zeal Bangla Sugar Mills Limited after Bangladesh’s independence.
It is currently operated under the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation. The mill began its first crushing season in 1958–59.
