Lanka Sugar Company will launch two biofertiliser facilities at the two factories and produce high quality fertiliser and contribute towards 10% of the national fertiliser requirement soon, Lanka Sugar Company Chairman Janaka Nimalachandra told the Sunday Observer Business last week.
The company will commence planting sugarcane at ‘Weli Oya Sugar’, the third sugar factory which will be set up during the year to produce around 25,000 mt of sugar and 6 mn liters of ethanol annually, he said.
He said the company targets to cross the Rs. 2 billion profit mark soon and added that operationally better last year’s performances and achieve higher production of sugar and ethanol in the years ahead.
The Sevanagala factory operated by Lanka Sugar Company recorded 300,000 MT of sugarcane, around 90 MT from a hectare and 17, 796 MT of sugar last year, the highest production in 35 years enabling the country to reduce foreign exchange on imports.
The Sevanagala factory recorded the highest annual production of 5.08 million liters of ethanol and posted an annual turnover of Rs. 4,200 million in 2021.
The company invested around Rs. 215 million on upgrading of agricultural equipment and transportation and Rs. 26 million on setting up five fertiliser storage facilities during the year.
“We increased the amount paid per ton by Rs. 250 to farmers enabling to raise the total farmer income by Rs. 75 million,” Nimalachandra said, adding that by slashing the loan interest rate from 12 to 8 percent the concessions granted to Sevanagala sugarcane farmers was Rs. 9 million in 2021.
The Pelwatte unit which is also operated by Lanka Sugar Company recorded an annual sugarcane production of 488,168 MT last year, the highest since 2003-04.
The unit produced 30,381 MT of sugar helping to cut imports and slashing the price per kg to Rs. 120 during the year.
The company invested Rs. 194 million on upgrading agri- equipment and transportation during the year. Around 2,000 employees of The Pelwatte and Sevanagala units who had completed five years of service as temporary and contract workers were absorbed into the permanent cadre. The two units recorded a net profit of Rs.1,200 million in 2020 from a net loss of Rs.1,310 million in the previous year which is the highest profit earned by the company for the last 35 years, Nimalachandra said.
He said the growth in the earnings was a major achievement for the company which had been loss making in the past.
The company had cultivated 10,000 acres of sugarcane in 2020 which included 8,500 acres at Sevanagala and 1,500 acres at Pelwatte.