Sindh growers of sugarcane have raised a new point about increase in the price of the cane. They contended that cane growers in Punjab are demanding Rs 56 for 40kg. Therefore, in Sindh growers should be paid Rs 60 per maund by the mills.
Final decision about the price was expected from Islamabad on Thursday night. It is yet to be known when the closed mills in Sindh resume their operations.
Leading growers in Sindh are, however, of the view that the delay caused in the crushing of sugarcane in the province will deprive the farmers of cultivation of wheat on 50,000 acres of land this year.
ARIF RANA FROM ISLAMABAD ADDS: Sindh-based sugar mills have halted their crushing season due to non-availability of sugarcane and asked the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) to take up the matter with the government putting an end to the ongoing controversy over sugarcane prices in the province.
Sources said the PSMA has brought the issue into the notice of the federal government through a SOS and sought a meeting to discuss the issue to find some viable solution to the problem.
The PSMA sources said that its representatives would seek guarantee from the authorities in the proposed meeting for continuous supply of sugarcane so that the Sindh mill-owners do not suffer loss due to time and again halting of crushing season.
The mill-owners claim that the crisis confronted by the sugar industry in Sindh was expected much prior to start of crushing and they had conveyed apprehensions to the authorities, but all went unnoticed.
Sindh-based mill-owners and growers had entered into harsh controversy over the rates of sugarcane from the very beginning of the crushing season. Since then both the parties are not ready to give any concession to each other.
The growers are demanding Rs 50, which is over and above the officially fixed rates of Rs 43 per 40kg of sugarcane. They have made it clear to the mill-owners that sugarcane would not be supplied to them unless they meet their demand for higher rates.
The mill-owners had outrightly rejected the growers' demand. They are of the view that growers' demand for higher rates could not be met because of low sugar rates in the open market.
The government had announced Rs 40 and 43 price per 40kg for Punjab and Sindh respectively.
The mill-owners were even calling the officially fixed rates as irrationally higher and had opposed it. They want a free market mechanism as a whole for sugar sector. They criticise the exercise of fixing sugarcane price at the beginning of each crushing season.