Production at Pelwatte Sugar resumes

Thursday, 8 March 2012 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Production in the Pelwatte Sugar Factory has resumed on Tuesday according to Government website news.lk.

It said the target of the factory is to produce 26,000 metric tons of sugar per year.

The factory which was mismanaged by the private sector was re-acquired by the government recently. It has a workforce of nearly 7,000. Sugar cane has been cultivated in 6,300 hectares and the factory purchases sugar cane at Rs. 3,500 per ton. Under the private sector management sugar cane had been purchased only at Rs. 3,000 per ton. Although the factory can crush 700,000 tons of sugar cane, the factory gets only 400,000 tons of sugar cane. Therefore, the outside farmers also get encouraged to cultivate sugar cane. When it was under the Government previously, before it was handed over to the private sector political partisans by the UNP Government, the factory produced 40,000 tons of sugar per year. After it was taken over by the private sector the production was almost halved. The reason was that the private sector management gave prominence for production of spirits instead of producing sugar. The local demand for sugar amounts to over 853,000 metric tons. Only 32,000 metric tons are produced locally. It is the Government’s objective to produce our sugar requirements locally. Minister Lakshman Senevir-athne said the production at the Pelwatte Sugar Factory will be brought to its maximum.