Cane farmers euphoric as mills to crush 2 lakh tonnes

Vellore

Revealing this to DT Next, mill chairman M Anandan said: “This is the first time we are crossing the two-lakh tonne mark after more than a decade.” While the mill has its registered tonnage of 1.10 lakh tonnes, cane farmers from Polur in Tiruvannamalai district, where the private sugar mill announced that it will not crush any cane this season, came to the Vellore facility a few days ago expressing desire to supply their cane loads to the Vellore unit.

With officials already ordering the diversion of cane from the Ambur and Tirupattur cooperative sugar mills in Tirupattur district and from the Tiruttani cooperative sugar mill to the Vellore unit, additional cane is also expected from Dharmapuri and Kallakurichi units, Anandan added.

“We expect to crush 35,000 tonnes unregistered cane from in and around the Vellore mill as many farmers have volunteered to provide cane. We hope to get 50,000 tonnes cane from Polur and another 45,000 tonnes from Tiruttani unit, thus pushing the Vellore mill’s total crushing tally to more than two lakh tonnes,” said Anandan adding that anticipating the scenario he had already met top department officials in Chennai to seek Rs 40 crore so that suppliers could be paid immediately.

He also said that low jaggery prices was also another reason why farmers with unregistered cane were willing to supply to the mill.

Asked about sugar recovery, Anandan said: “We anticipate an average recovery of 9.5 per cent as against the threshold figure of eight per cent.”