Pressed by Cane Commissioner: all 31 Sindh mills light up boilers

Under pressure from Sindh Cane Commissioner, all the 31 mills have lit up their boilers and come into crushing position, but the adamant attitude of growers in not supplying sugarcane at the notified price of Rs 127 per maund is not allowing them to run the mills at full capacity.
Deoomal A Essarani, Chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Sindh Zone, told Business Recorder that the single-tandem sugar mills, which have the capacity of crushing up to 0.1 million maunds sugarcane per day, are running at 25 percent of their full capacity. They crush for six hours and remain idle for 18 hours. Similarly, double-tandem sugar mills, which can crush up to 0.2 million maunds sugarcane per day, are running up to 50 percent of their capacity. They remain in operation for 12 hours, and remain idle for 12 hours.
Only Matri, Tharparkar and Sanghar sugar mills are crushing 50 percent of their capacity, by running only one shift. Only Al-Noor Sugar Mills is crushing 150,000 maunds per day and that, too, because it is getting sugarcane supplies from Punjab, he said. Essarani said that if sugarcane supply is ensured to all the 31 sugar mills in Sindh, they could produce 15,000 tons of sugar daily. The requirement of Sindh province is 3,000 tons per day whereas mills are producing up to 2,500 tons of sugar per day.
The Sindh Zone PSMA Chairman said that though the Sindh government had notified Rs 127 per maund for sugarcane, but the mills are paying up to Rs 150 per maund, ie Rs 23 over and above the notified price, but even then growers are not coming forward to sell their produce, as they want more.
He said that consumers like local sugar because it is white in colour and has bigger grain as compared to imported sugar, which is powder-like and is picked up willingly by confectionery producers and juice sellers. Essarani, however, expressed hope that, gradually, the situation would improve reasonably as prices have already come down in the market. There are three tiers in the supply chain, and prices keep changing at every stage. First, it is ex-mill price, then comes in the wholesaler, and finally it is the retailer who manoeuvres the price, he explained.