Naogaon's 700+ rice mills face 5-6 hours daily power cuts, forcing factories to rely on costly diesel generators and cut production by nearly one-third.
Factories and farmers across Naogaon district are bearing the brunt of severe load shedding, with power outages lasting five to six hours daily and forcing businesses to rely on expensive diesel generators to keep operations running.
Naogaon, one of Bangladesh's major rice-producing districts with more than 700 rice mills, is experiencing significant disruption to its rice processing industry. At Nasim Brothers Automatic Rice Mill in the BSCIC industrial estate, production has fallen by around 30 percent due to the prolonged power cuts, according to factory manager Saiful Islam.
Mill owners report being forced to choose between burning costly diesel to maintain operations or shutting down production despite continued market demand. Dwijen Ghosh, owner of Ghosh Automatic Rice Mill in Sultanpur, said his facility faced load shedding five to six times in a 24-hour period, with each outage lasting around an hour.
The situation is worse in rural areas outside the district town, where residents face power outages of up to seven to eight hours a day. The additional fuel costs are squeezing profit margins and forcing some businesses to reduce operating hours, creating concerns about the broader impact on the district's economy and rice supply.
Naogaon district also hosts numerous factories producing food products, agricultural machinery, plastics, and light-engineering goods, all of which are experiencing similar disruptions from the ongoing power crisis.