Pelwatta Sugar Factory

The Pelwatta Sugar Factory (පැල්වත්ත සීනි කම්හල) is one of the industrial sugar mills in Sri Lanka. It is located in Pelwatta near Buttala in Monaragala District.

History

The development of the Sugar industry in Sri Lanka started during the Dutch Period with the importation of sugar cane from South India, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., and planting them on the plains of several rivers and streams for the production of jaggery and sugar at cottage level (Keerthipala, 2016). During the British Period, the industry was further developed (Keerthipala, 2016).

Sugar development as a government venture was started in 1956 with the opening of new sugar lands in the Gal Oya Valley and in 1957, the Sri Lanka Sugar Corporation was established as a sponsored institution under the Industrial Corporation Act, (No. 46) of 1957 (Keerthipala, 2007; Keerthipala, 2016; Perera, 2009). In 1960 and 1961, two government-owned mills were established at Hingurana and Kantale respectively (Keerthipala, 2016).

The industry was further expanded with the establishment of two more sugar-processing complexes; one at Pelwatta (1985) and the other at Sevanagala [(1986) Keerthipala, 2007; Keerthipala, 2016; Samankumara, 2010]. Of them, the Pelwatta factory complex was established as a joint venture company with a government share of 49 and 51 % owned by private companies and individuals (Keerthipala, 2016). Initially, it had a capacity of 2,800 TCD (tonnes of cane per day) and it was increased to 3,300 TCD in 1992 (Keerthipala, 2007; Keerthipala, 2016).

In 2011, the Pelwatta sugar industry was vested in the government under Act No. 43 of 2011 on underutilized assets (Keerthipala, 2016). In the next year, the government-owned Lanka Sugar Company (Private) Ltd. was formed to run the Pelwatta sugar industry (Keerthipala, 2016).

The Pelwatta Industry

Annual sugar consumption in Sri Lanka was 670,000 MT by 2010 (Samankumara, 2010). Pelwatta Sugar Industries Limited along with Sevanagala Sugar Industries Limited produce nearly 66,000 MT annually and this is about 10% of total consumption (Keerthi, 2002; Samankumara, 2010). Of these two companies, the Pelwatta company contributes to 80% of the total sugar production of the country (Keerthi, 2002).

Pelwatta Sugar Industry owns sugar cane cultivation in 12,000 hectares and both company owned and private owned lands are used to cultivate sugar cane (Samankumara, 2010).