North Bengal Sugar Mills shuts early amid cane shortage

The sugarcane crushing operations for the 2025-26 season at the state-owned North Bengal Sugar Mills in Lalpur, Natore, ended on Tuesday -- two weeks ahead of schedule -- due to a shortage of sugarcane.

“We could not secure enough sugarcane supply, so we had to stop operations and close the mill,” said Md Ashab Uddin, general manager (agriculture) of the mill.

According to mill sources, the target for the season was to collect 200,000 tonnes of sugarcane from 18,000 acres of land and crush it over 122 days -- from November 10, 2025, to March 12, 2026 -- to produce 13,000 tonnes of sugar.

However, the mill collected around 172,000 tonnes of sugarcane and produced about 9,600 tonnes of sugar this season, down from 195,981 tonnes of sugarcane crushed in 2024-25 -- a decline of nearly 24,000 tonnes compared with the previous season.

The mill authorities said the decline in production was mainly due to lower-than-targeted cultivation and supply shortages, as large quantities of sugarcane were diverted to other mills and molasses producers.

“Cultivation did not meet expectations, even though farmers were given incentives to grow sugarcane,” Ashab Uddin said.

Around 15,000 farmers have received their payments through mobile banking, with a total of Tk 15 crore distributed this season.

Moreover, to encourage growers, the price of sugarcane was increased by Tk 25 per maund (about 37kg), raising it from Tk 600 to Tk 625.

Despite this, many farmers shifted to other crops that they consider more profitable than sugarcane.

This created supply gaps, reduced the extraction rate and made it impossible for the mill to achieve its production target.

Officials warned that failing to meet the target is likely to result in significant financial losses this season.