Sugar production at listed LOLC-controlled Gal Oya Plantations’ refinery fell 25% in the year ending March 2017. Despite the cultivated extent increasing 50%, sugarcane harvest fell 20% due to drought and white leaf disease. Sugar refining is a loss-making business. LOLC expects an ethanol distillery and organic fertilizer plant to return Gal Oya Plantations to profit by 2019. Molasses, a by-product of sugar refining, will be diverted to the distillery.
167,000 MT
Sugarcane crushed at Gal Oya Plantations’ sugar refinery in 2016/17
11,000 MT
Sugar produced in 2016/17
21,500 ltr
Daily production capacity of the ethanol distillery
4,600 MT
Cultivated sugarcane extent