Power crisis disrupts rice production in Kushtia

The continued power shortages have disrupted production at rice mills in Khazanagar, one of the country’s major rice-processing hubs located in Kushtia.

Around 250 small, medium and large rice-processing units in the area receive electricity from both Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (Palli Bidyut).

Mill owners say the situation is particularly difficult for mills under Palli Bidyut, which are reportedly receiving electricity for only five to six hours a day. The frequent outages are disrupting production, forcing millers to operate generators to keep their plants running.

At the same time, workers have to be paid even when production remains suspended.

Millers fear that the disruption will soon put upward pressure on rice prices.

However, there is considerable variation in the millers’ estimates of production losses. While some claim output has fallen by 60%–65%, others put the decline at around 38%-40%. As no consolidated data on production across Khazanagar is available, it is difficult to establish that the area’s overall rice production has fallen by as much as two-thirds.

Despite this uncertainty, concerns are growing that rice prices could be raised at any time, citing the power crisis as a reason.

According to Kushtia Palli Bidyut Samity, electricity supply to the district has remained significantly below demand over the past two to three weeks, resulting in scheduled load-shedding in different areas. The power-dependent industrial hub of Khazanagar has also been affected.

A visit to Khazanagar and adjoining areas found workers at several mills waiting for electricity to resume. Some mills were using generators as an alternative source of power. While this has allowed production to continue partially, the additional diesel cost is increasing operating expenses.

Mill operators also said interruptions during different stages of paddy processing were affecting production.

Abdus Samad, proprietor of Swarna Auto Rice Mill in Ballavpur, adjacent to Khazanagar, said his mill normally produces around 90 tonnes of rice a day. Even after using a generator, production has fallen to no more than 30 tonnes a day, he claimed.

“Workers come to the mill but have to wait because there is no electricity. We still have to pay their wages even when there is no production. On top of that, we are incurring additional costs for diesel to run the generator,” he said.

However, the extent of production losses varies from one mill to another.

Jihaduzzaman Ziku, owner of Golden Rice Mill, said production at his mill had declined by 60%–65% in recent days. He said interruptions during processing could also damage paddy remaining inside the machinery.

Meanwhile, Abdul Khaleque, managing director of Desh Agro Ltd, estimated the production disruption at around 38%–40%.

The varying estimates indicate that the power crisis is genuinely affecting rice milling in Khazanagar, but there is no reliable consolidated assessment of the overall production loss in the market.

Khazanagar has rice mills of different sizes and production capacities, and not all of them depend on the same electricity supply system. Therefore, applying the production-loss figures of one or two large mills to the entire rice hub would not necessarily provide an accurate picture.

The disruption is also affecting transportation. A truck driver who had brought paddy from Naogaon said he had to wait for a long time to unload his truck because of the slowdown in mill operations. Such delays are reducing the turnaround of vehicles and disrupting the supply chain.

Some traders and millers are meanwhile warning that the power shortage could push up both production costs and rice prices. However, the extent to which electricity shortages have actually increased production costs, and how much of that additional cost can reasonably be reflected in rice prices, requires separate assessment.

The impact of the power crisis on rice prices cannot be determined solely from millers’ statements. Paddy prices, stock levels, labour costs, fuel expenses, actual production volumes and changes in mill-gate and wholesale rice prices also need to be considered.

The disruption caused by the electricity shortage is a reality, but it cannot automatically be treated as the sole reason for increasing rice prices. Particularly when millers themselves are providing widely different estimates of production losses, the actual shortfall and additional production costs should be verified before any price increase is justified on the grounds of the power crisis.

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Mohammad Jahangir Alam, deputy general manager (DGM) of Kushtia Palli Bidyut Samity, said the district’s electricity demand was around 180 megawatts. Over the past two to three weeks, the district had received only 40%–50% of its demand, he said. However, supply had improved to 135 MW the previous evening.

Regarding the situation, Kushtia Deputy Commissioner Touhid Bin-Hasan said discussions had been held to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to rice mills.

“We are trying to take prompt measures so that rice production does not face major disruption,” he said.

Khazanagar is one of the country’s major rice markets and processing hubs. Any significant change in production and supply there could therefore affect markets beyond Kushtia. But the key questions at present are how much production has actually been lost due to the power crisis and how much additional cost the mills are incurring.

Without verified mill-level data on production and costs, accepting claims of a major production shortfall–or using such claims as the basis for raising rice prices–could obscure the actual market situation.