Extraction from sugarcane commences in mill

However, dues owed to farmers for having already supplied cane over the last two years has resulted in only 2,000 farmers signing contracts with the mill to supply cane this year. The mill has a total of 35,000 registered farmers in 800 villages in the area allocated to this unit. 

The managing director of the mill, Deepak Jacob, who was present at the event, later revealed to the media that the unit plans to crush a total of 1.15 lakh tonnes of cane, to produce 1 lakh tonnes of sugar this year. The crushing season will be on for the next three months, he added. Moreover, the crushing this year is expected to be better than last year when the mill was able to crush only 58,086 tonnes cane, officials present added. 

The only solace about this unit is that the cogeneration power plant on the premises produces 15 MW electricity daily, by burning bagasse, the dry cane refuse left after extracting the juice from cane. With the mill needing only 4 MW for its needs, the remaining 11 MW will be evacuated to TNEB’s state power grid.