Mobarakganj Sugar Mills Limited under Kaliganj upazila in Jhenidah, the only state-owned sugar mill in the south-western part of the country, started its operation yesterday.
Sugarcane farmer Abdul Kader and an employee of the mill Tamij Uddin jointly inaugurated the operation for the fiscal 2013-14 at a ceremony.
The authorities of the mills has fixed a target to produce 9,500 tonnes of sugar by crushing 150,000 tonnes of sugarcane during 120 days of the current crushing season.
The mill authorities said they had a stock of sugarcane on a total of 8,000 hectares of land for crushing in the current season.
Managing director of the mill, Delwar Hossain, and the senior officials were present at the programme.
Delwar Hossain admitted that 9,728 tonnes of sugar produced in the 2011-12 fiscal was still lying unsold at the stores because of the higher rate compared to other brands in the market.
Also, the farmers are counting heavy losses as the mill is not being able to pay them because of the loss incurred during the previous fiscal.
Currently the mill is due to pay around Tk100crore to different banks and stakeholders, he said.
