Two refiners halve sugar production due to ‘gas crisis’

News Desk :
City Group and Meghna Group of Industries or MGI said a shortage of gas forced them to halve sugar production as a sudden price hike led the government to bolster monitoring.
A team of the National Consumer Rights Protection or DNCRP visited the refineries of City Group, MGI and Abdul Monem Sugar Refinery Ltd in Narayanganj on Saturday amid what the traders said was a supply crunch, reports bdnews24.com
Citing documents presented by City and MGI, DNCRP Assistant Director Magfur Rahman said sugar production in their mills fell to half the capacity. “Officials said they cut production due to a shortage of gas.”
City markets sugar under the brand name Teer and MGI’s sugar brand is Fresh.
Biswajit Saha, a director of City Group, said the gas shortage forced them to cut daily production from 3,200 tonnes to 1000-1,200 tonnes. “We’ve informed the government agencies about the matter.”
He also said the gas crisis has been lingering for about one and a half months.
At Mirpur in Dhaka, the DNCRP fined seven shops for selling sugar at higher than the government-fixed rates.
The government raised the prices of sugar in the first week of October in an apparent move to catch up with the market as the traders were already selling at higher rates than the previously fixed prices.
The price of refined but loose sugar was fixed at Tk 90 a kg in the retail markets while the price of packaged sugar was set at Tk 95.
Sugar prices skyrocketed in Dhaka by the end of last week after most stores ran out of the product. Retailers who still had the products were charging customers up to Tk 110 per kg on Friday.
The annual demand for sugar in Bangladesh is 2.5 million tonnes. The local mills produce only 100,000 tonnes and the rest is imported.
Sugar prices have increased by 19.5 percent in the past year, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, although the international media reported freight cost for imports has decreased.
Importers and refiners blamed a shortage of dollars for imports and a lack of gas to refine the sweetener for the crisis. High dollar prices caused them losses, said Golam Rahman, managing director of Deshbandhu Sugar Mill and president of Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association.
Speaking to bdnews24.com on Thursday, City Group Director Biswajit said a shortage of gas was causing more problems than the dollar crisis was.
The energy crisis due to the shortage of dollars has already forced the government to resort to massive recurring blackouts that have affected production at factories, besides daily life.