Lowest crop ever for Penang

[posted 18 Sept 2009,1400]

Crop estimates of 230,000 tonnes for the Penang Mill Area this season have been revised downwards to 170,000 tonnes – ie. 60,000 tonnes or 26% short on the original estimate.

“This is the lowest crop ever for Penang and is well below the drought stricken years of 1983 and 1998,” said National Farmers Union President Sanjeet Maharaj.

Likewise, crop estimates for other mill areas have also been revised downwards. It is now estimated that no more than 2.1 million tonnes will be crushed which is 350,000 tonnes short of the original target of 2.45 million tonnes.

“A crop this size will yield no more than 160,000 -180,000 tonnes of sugar, well short of Fiji’s boast of exporting 240,000 tonnes this season,” an industry source said.

The extraction rate is dismally low with TCTS running as high as 13:1.

“It is a dead loss – with the so-called mill upgrade, it is now taking 13 tonnes of cane to make a tonne of sugar when it should be no more than 8.5 tonnes,” he said.

The industry is dying a slow death at the hands of an incompetent sugar ministry and an incorrigible FSC management.