The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Crushing begins at Amaravathi sugar mills

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Monday, Apr 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Crushing begins at Amaravathi sugar mills

M. Gunasekaran

Disintegrator installed for extraction

UDUMALPET: Amid buoyancy of yield from sugarcane due to unseasonal rains a fortnight ago, crushing of sugarcane began at the Amaravathi Cooperative Sugar Mills, near here, on Friday. The crushing will continue for more than five months.

The installation of disintegrator instead of the age-old cane-cutter at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh is expected to improve juice extraction, S. Ramakrishnan, special officer of the mills, told The Hindu.

Crop area

According to him, the mill has a registered crop area of 5,865 acres with an expected average yield of 36 tonnes an acre.

“We estimate a daily average crushing of 1,250 tonnes of sugarcane. We set a target of 2.11 lakh tonnes and are hopeful of crushing an additional 20,000 tonnes,” he added.

Mr. Ramakrishnan, who heads the once famed cooperative sugar mills of Tamil Nadu, said that there would no problem in payment for farmers.

“Based on last year’s recovery rate of 9.7 per cent, we have fixed the price at Rs. 1,097 per tonne. The sugar mills will incur the transportation costs. The payment will be made to the farmers within 15 days of supply,” he said.

He hoped that the recovery rate would cross 10 per cent due to the change in processing as the disintegrator enhance crushing speed.

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