Despite offering higher prices to the growers for this cane crushing season, millers are receiving less cane either at mill's gate or prescribed purchasing centres in Sindh and NWFP, sources in the ministry and industry told Business Recorder on Wednesday.
"The millers are receiving less cane, as the growers now understand economics of their produce, which like other parts of the world is also a political commodity," official sources told Business Recorder when contacted for comments.
The middlemen (Artis) were offering Rs 90 per maund to the growers for bringing their produce in the last week of December or in the first week of January in Sindh, he added. Sugar mills in NWFP are even offering Rs 95 per maund, which is above the fixed price of Rs 65, Sikandar Khan, PSMA head in the province disclosed when contacted by this correspondent on telephone.
"We have time and again requested the Minfal and PM's adviser on Finance for either banning gur making or levying duty on the gur, which have put the cane industry on the verge of closure but still no action has been taken in this connection", Khan added.
Gur making has now spread to the villages and towns in Punjab thus becoming a industry parallel to sugar, as the prices of gur also showing upward trend in the market, he said. Federal Cane Commissioner, Inayatullah Khan refused to comment on gur issue but said out of 28 sugar mills in Sindh, 24 have started crushing while in Punjab crushing is progressing as per schedule.
When asked about the production, Cane Commissioner hoped that it would be around 3.5 to 3.6 million tonnes against the consumption of 3.9 million tonnes and TCP had a carry over stock of 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes for 2006-07.