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News > EID Parry's success and relation with farmers |
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The Hindu, 25 September 2004
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CUDDALORE : The word `Nellikuppam' reminds everyone of sugar, chocolates and sugar factory. The numerous lorries, trucks, tractor-trailers and bullock carts loaded with sugarcane that you can see on the Cuddalore-Panruti main road are indicative of the presence of the sugar factory in the region. And the company which runs the show is none other than EID Parry (India) Limited of the Murugappa group. A group of media persons was taken round the factory on Thursday and explained about the features of the sugar factory.
Going to the history, cane cultivation in Nellikuppam area was started by Campbell in 1803 and a Kandasari unit was started in 1845-46. The nine-roller mill commenced production of plantation white sugar in 1940. The daily cane crushing capacity reached 5,000 tonnes a day by 1990-91, which is the highest cane-crushing factory in Tamil Nadu.
EID Parry has four sugar factories located at Nellikuppam, Pugalur, Pettavaittalai and Padukottai. The combined daily cane crushing capacity of all the four factories is around 14,000 tonnes. Total cane crushed during the year 2003 was 33.3 lakh tonnes and the sugar production 3.2 lakh tonnes, constituting 9.7 per cent recovery.
EID has emerged as the least cost producer of sugar with focus on operational efficiencies. The company has installed a cogeneration power plant with a capacity of 24.5 MW. Of which the company exports 15 MW to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and 9.5 MW is consumed internally. It uses bagasse, a by-product of sugar to generate power. The cost of the project is Rs. 8.2 crores.
Co-generation plant
The company has plans to replicate this model in all its four factories and to generate around 80-85 MW in the next 2-3 years. Work is on for setting up its second co-generation plant at Pugalur with a capacity of 22 MW. This plant is being constructed jointly with Tamilnadu Newsprint Ltd., at a cost of Rs. 80 crores. TNPL will finance 30 per cent of the project cost.
The unit started producing M30 sugar production from January this year. A refinery of 120 tonnes a day capacity with Tate & Lyle process technology, is under installation to meet the needs of specific customers and to compete with the international market.
Consumers will soon get refined branded sugar from EID. It will be launched by the end of this year. Reaching the consumers will not be a problem, says Rama Babu, President, as EID has dealers network deep down the pockets and which can be optimally used. It is anticipated that 10 per cent of the total production will be used for branding.
EID Parry has strong links with the farming community for its farm input and sugar production units. The Nellikuppam unit obtains sugarcane from 30,000 farmers in 271 villages within 30 km of the factory. In order to increase the link and the bond, it has developed a project that covers 150 villages and is aimed at improving the interactions between the farmers and the sugar factory using information technology.
IT initiatives
The project has been done in coordination with TeNeT Group, the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and N-Logue Communications, Chennai. A low-cost telecom system has been provided for accessing voice and the Internet through kiosks.
With many feathers to its cap, EID Parry is open to share its success with other companies by way of management consultant. It has already provided management consultancy services to a company in Sri Lanka and Fuji.
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