After successfully crushing 2.41 lakh tonnes of sugar and producing 1.68 lakh quintals of sugar during 2023-24, State-owned Mysore Sugar Company, also known as Mysugar, will start the crushing operations of 2024-25 from June this year, said Minister for Agriculture N. Cheluvarayaswamy.
Addressing a meeting on the crushing operations at Mysugar for the year 2024-25 in Mandya on Thursday, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy, who is also the Minister in charge of Mandya district, said the sugar factory had already entered into an agreement with the farmers for crushing 1.55 lakh metric tonnes. However, the State-owned sugar factory is aiming to crush a total of 4 lakh metric tonnes of sugar during the year 2024-25, he said.
Apart from producing 1.68 lakh quintals of sugar, Mysugar factory has also produced 15,741 tonnes of molasses and 68,680 tonnes of bagasse during the year 2023-24.
Also, a total of 12,21,000 units of electricity have been produced ever since the turbine was started on September 15, 2023. While 7,27,800 units of power were used for crushing sugarcane, the remaining 4,93,200 units were sold. An amount of ₹5 crore due to Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply company for power had also been paid, according to officials.
Sugarcane crushing operations for the year 2023-24 concluded on December 5, 2023, when 2.41 lakh tonnes of sugarcane was crushed and the farmers were paid ₹2,920 for every tonne. While the farmers had been paid a total of ₹ 70.46 crore, the labour charges for cutting sugarcane amounting to ₹ 10.21 crore and transportation charges of ₹3.43 crore too had been cleared. ₹12.10 lakh had also been paid to the farmers welfare fund, the officials added.
New sugar factory
With regard to the setting up of a new sugar factory in Mandya as announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the recent State Budget 2024-25, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy said the place for the new factory had not been finalised yet.
Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy’s clarification on the place for the new factory came after Mandya MLA Ravikumar had favoured the setting up of a new sugar factory on 75 acres of land at Sathanur farm while constructing a software park on the existing premises to facilitate employment opportunities for the youth.
However, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy made it clear that there was no proposal before the government to set up a software park at the existing premises of Mysugar factory, but he added that MLAs conceive plans for the development of their respective constituencies and any decision in the regard will be taken only after a public debate.
As financial resources for the new factory in Mandya will have to be mobilised through government grants as well as monetization of the factory’s assets, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy said a technical report will be sought on the condition of the existing machinery and a meeting will be convened with the farmers’ leaders to decide if the existing factory should be renovated or a new one should be set up.
It may be mentioned here that Mysugar, which had discontinued operations for a few years, had resumed crushing operations only during 2022.
