‘Crushing season’ at Sanjivani sugar factory ends in 77 days

PONDA: With the drop in sugarcane production in the state as well as sugarcane supply from the neighboring states, annual crushing season at the Sanjivani sugar factory at Dharbandora ended within 77 days on Friday.

During this 77-day season, factory has managed to crush around 52,838 tonne of sugarcane and produced around 41,000 quintals of sugar, which is almost 30 per cent less compared to last year’s production.

As per the information, during the crushing season of 2018-19, the factory crushed a total of 52,838 tonne of sugarcane, and of that 35,347 tonne sugarcane was locally produced, while 17,491 tonne of sugarcane was brought from neighboring states (gate cane).

Compared to the sugarcane production during the last year (2017-18), the production this year in state was down by almost 12,000 tonne, while there was a shortfall in sugarcane import by almost 9,000 tonne.

Last year, the crushing season had lasted for 134 days, during which the factory had managed to crush around 73,659 tonne of cane and produced 57,000 quintal of sugar. Out of the total sugarcane crushed last year, 57,160 tonne was Goa cane and 26,499 tonne was gate cane.

According to the factory officials, change in climate has affected the sugarcane production in the state, while at same time the area under cultivation too has come down, which also affected the production.

Closure of Goa- Karnataka highway at Anmod created hindrance in the import of sugarcane. Farmers were forced to take a longer route via Canacona, and so, many of them refused to supply their cane and factory suffered a shortage, informed the officials.

It may also be noted that this year factory’s crushing season was delayed by almost a month, and it started on  December 13.

Crushing was delayed due to the failure of the government in releasing the financial assistance to the factory in the form of share capital, and also due to the delay on the part of factory management in the complying with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines.