Five sugar mills in northern districts have suspended cane crashing due to a shortfall in sugarcane production.

Joypurhat, Pabna, Natore, North Bengal and Rajshahi sugar mills were bound to suspend cane crashing after 27 to 42 days in operation.

Another five mills in Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Shampur and Rangpur are likely to face closure for the same reason.

These mills incurred a loss of over Tk 59 crore this

season, said an official with Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation.

All the 15 sugar mills in the country produce around 2.1 lakh tonnes of sugar against national demand for around 12-14 lakh tonnes a year.

Rajshahi Sugar Mill with capacity of one-lakh tonnes stopped its operation on January 7 incurring a loss of overTk 14.79 crore. The mill crashed 40,142 tonnes sugarcane and produced 2,761 tonnes sugar against the 35,200 tonnes target.

Two mills in Natore,

including North Bengal Sugar Mill, suspended crashing on January 8 and January 21 and incurred a loss ofTk 12 crore.

North Bengal Sugar Mill reset its crashing target at 41,000 tonnes from its primary target of over 1.6 lakh tonnes as land in sugarcane farming under the mill shrank due to poor production. The mill counted Tk 12 crore in loss.

Pabna Sugar Mill counted the same amount of loss when it was closed on January 20. Joypurhat Sugar Mill lost Tk 9 crore on its date

of closure on January 24.

The acute shortage of sugarcane forced growers into other cultivable crops. Moreover, farmers also incurred losses in previous years despite a record production of sugarcane as they failed to get proper prices.

Cane crashing in the northern sugar mills has also been delayed for one month due to an alarming decline of sugarcane farming.

Sugarcane prices have been fixed this season at Tk 66 a maund at mill gate and Tk 64.50 at outer centres by the government.