HYDERABAD: Out of 31 sugar mills, operating in different parts of Sindh, two mills have started cane crushing while 14 others have started preparations by torching their boilers in the on-going cane crushing season 2009-2010.

According to Sindh Cane Commissioner, Tharparkar Sugar Mills of Kot Ghulam Muhammad and Matiari Sugar Mills Matiari have started crushing while Al-Asif Sugar Mills Gharo, Army Welfare Sugar Mills Badin, Digri Sugar Mills Digri, Faran Sugar Mills Shaikh Bhirkio, Ghotki Sugar Mills Ghotki, Habib Sugar Mills Nawabshah, Mehran Sugar Mills Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Mirpurkhas, Pangrio Sugar Mills Pangrio, Sakrand Sugar Mills Sakrand, Seri Sugar Mills Seri, Shahmurad Sugar Mills Jhoke Sharif, Sindh Abadgar Sugar Mills Deenpur and Tando Muhammad Khan Sugar Mills Tando Muhammad Khan are at the pre-stage of crushing with flaming of boilers.

According to statistics, received from the office of Cane Commissioner Sindh, these sugar mills have produced 982,173.236 metric tones of sugar with crush of 10,208,444.790 metric tones of sugarcane with recovery of 9.6183 per cent during the crushing season 2008-2009 as compared to production of 1,575,370.200 metric tones of sugar with crush of 16,819,109.004 metric tones sugarcane with recovery of 9.3312 per cent in the crushing season 2007-2008.

According to details of sugar production by some of the big sugar mills of the province in the crushing season 2008-2009, Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Mirwah Gorchani started crushing from November 19, 2008 and closed its crushers on March 15, 2009 by producing 52,850.00 metric tones of sugar with crush of 513,887.499 metric tones sugarcane with 10.2800 per cent recovery.

Al-Noor Sugar Mills Moro started crushing from November 23, 2008 and closed its crushers on March 16, 2009 by producing 66,495.00 metric tones of sugar with crush of 736,420.160 metric tones sugarcane with 9.030 per cent recovery.

Faran Sugar Mills Shaikh Bhirkio started crushing from November 11, 2008 and closed its crushers on March 16, 2009 by producing 63,473.00 metric tones of sugar with crush of 685,778.317 metric tones sugarcane with 9.260 per cent recovery.

Ghotki Sugar Mills Ghotki started crushing from December 1, 2008 and closed its crushers on March 4, 2009 by producing 62,483.500 metric tones of sugar with crush of 552,645.766 metric tones sugarcane with 11.3004 per cent recovery.

Habib Sugar Mills Nawabshah started crushing from November 18, 2008 and closed its crushers on March 17, 2009 by producing 77,051.00 metric tones of sugar with crush of 780,578.014 metric tones sugarcane with 9.87 per cent recovery.—APP