Everest Sugar Mill makes timely payments to farmers

By Our Correspondent,Bardibas, June 21: Amid complaints that most sugar mills in the country have not paid sugarcane farmers on time, the Everest Sugar Mill, in Ramnagar, Mahottari district, has paid the increased amount of sugarcane purchased this year.

Financial General Manager of Everest Sugar Mill Bimal Chandra Thakur said that the mill has deposited around Rs. 52.6 million in the farmer's account at the increased rate of Rs. 20 per quintal.

Before this, the mill had paid Rs. 1.44 billion for sugarcane it bought at the rate of Rs. 520 per quintal 17 times.

The government had increased the price of sugarcane by Rs. 20 to Rs. 540 per quintal apart from subsidy for the current fiscal year 2022/23.

But the sugar produced by the mill was not being sold, and initially the price was paid by the mill at the rate of Rs. 520 per quintal in the month of March.

Naresh Singh Kushawha, President of Sugarcane Producers Association, Mahottari, said that after the mills started paying the same rate as before, the sugarcane farmers were worried that they would not get the increased amount. 

"Although it is late, the Everest Sugar Mill has cleared the farmers' doubts by paying the increased rate of Rs 20 per quintal. There are no dues of farmers to be received from the sugar mill for the current crushing season," he said.

The Everest Sugar Mill had purchased 2.630 million quintals of sugarcane from 12,590 farmers of Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat and Dhanusha districts this year.

The mill produced 242,003 quintals of sugar.

After the worry that sugarcane farmers would not get neither payment nor reasonable price decreased sugarcane cultivation, the Everest adopted a policy of paying within a week of buying sugarcane this year.

"Under this policy, we have paid all the farmers within the time," Thakur said, "We have deposited the remaining increased amount of Rs. 20 per quintal in the account of all the farmers."