Being part of a region that was historically the first producer of sugar by boiling sugarcane juice until it turned into crystals, Bangladesh now meets 95 to 98 per cent of its annual demand (of roughly between 2 and 2.5 million metric tons) for sugar through import. With the domestic production ranging between 1.0 and 5.0 per cent of the annual demand, the country has to import its sugar from even faraway lands like Brazil. The country has some 15 sugar mills under the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC). But these industries, as in the case of other state-owned industries, are loss-making, top-heavy institutions. Moreover, the obsolete machinery of these sugar mills contributes to increasing sugar's production cost, which often far exceeds its market price. Unsurprisingly, running these sugar mills have become commercially unviable. So, they need major rehabilitation to make them viable. As these sugar mills cannot meet the public's demand for sugar, the market is now under the control of private businesses (five to six large industrial groups essentially control the sugar market), who import raw sugar and refine it.  That is the main reason why the sugar market is so volatile. In such circumstances, unless the state-owned sugar mills are rehabilitated, modernised and made operational, the private refiners' grip on the market and its attendant instability will continue.  The good news is that the commerce minister, Khandakar Abdul Muktadir, who is also in charge of the industry ministry, told journalists that the government was going to reopen nine of the 15 sugar mills under the BSFIC, which are now sitting idle.

Notably, six of these sugar mills are still operational. On this score, the minister reportedly visited the Panchagar Sugar Mills Limited and stressed the need for renovation and introduction of new technology for the age-old sugar  mills. As he assured, once made operational, those sugar mills will be able to reduce country's dependence on imported sugar, contribute to the economy, benefit workers and sugarcane farmers,  create jobs and stimulate income-generating activities in the areas centering the sugar mills. The fact that the minister talked with the sugarcane farmers in Panchagarh is reassuring. In fact, most of the state-owned sugar mills in the past were responsible for exploitation of the sugarcane farmers. The administration of those sugar mills was corrupt to the core. The sugarcane farmers would be subjected to cheating by mill officials as soon as the farmers emptied their sugarcane-laden bullock carts on the factory premises. Farmers would be cheated while weighing sugarcane. A sizeable chunk of their product would be rejected without rhyme or reason. The payment against their supply of sugarcane would also fall into bureaucratic traps. That is the reason why the sugarcane farmers in some districts formed associations and staged protests against the exploitative sugar mills officials. In the face of such raw deal meted out to the sugarcane farmers by the sugar mills authorities, the farmers naturally lost interest in supplying their products of hard labour to the mills. This acted as a disincentive to the sugarcane growers.

The state-owned sugar mills' failures could also be traced to the resentment of the sugarcane farmers who gradually stopped growing sugar cane and switched to other cash crops.  In that case, the government has to convince the farmers that the rehabilitated sugar mills authorities would treat them fairly and the past practice of mistreating the farmers by mill officials would stop.  It is believed the commerce minister's exchange of views with the sugarcane farmers would be motivating enough for the growers. While assuring the farmers about the benefits they would be able to draw from the revived sugar mills, the minister, at the same time, would also do well to issue strict warning against any instance of mistreatment or exploitation of sugarcane growers by the mill officials in the future.  In this connection, alongside renovating the sugar mills, their administration needs also to be revamped to render those efficient, productive and free from corruption.

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