The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has condemned the statement of federal minister of food, agriculture and livestock Sikandar Hayat Bosan and said he should not shift his ministry's mistakes to the sugar industry.
The PSMA spokesman, in a statement here on Thursday, said the sugar industry has not defaulted on payment to the sugarcane growers over the last three months.
It may be mentioned the federal food minister, in his statement, has blamed the sugar industry for shortfall into sugarcane crop due to non-payment of farmer's dues.
The PSMA spokesman said the shortfall in sugarcane crop occurred due to wrong crop estimates provided by the officials of the ministry of food in 2001-2002, to the federal government resulting into duty free import of sugar from India causing surplus stocks in the country.
He said the surplus stocks of sugar in the country ended up on a crash in the sugar market due to which the farmers could not get higher cane prices as compared to other crops. Therefore, he said due to the mistakes of the Minfal subsequently for another four to five years the farmers could not get good price of sugarcane while the prices of other cops kept on increasing. He asked the minister to get the reports of the provincial cane commissioners checked in order to get him satisfied over the cane payment issue.