Pakistan Sugar Mills Associations (PSMA) Sindh Zone has rejected the minimum sugarcane price of Rs 103 per 40 kilograms, fixed by the Sugarcane Control Board for the next 2009-10 season for Sindh and termed it unaffordable for the Sindh sugar mills.
The price has been fixed abruptly without consultation from the PSMA-Sindh Zone, as none of its office bearers was invited to attend the Sugarcane Control Board meeting. Sugarcane minimum price has been fixed at Rs 100 per 40 kgs in Punjab and there has always been a traditional difference of one rupee in the price between Punjab and Sindh, hence, the minimum sugarcane for Sindh may be maintained at Rs 101 per 40 kgs.
In the previous 2008-09 season, sugarcane price was Rs 80 for Punjab and Rs 81 for Sindh, while the sugar mills of Sindh were forced to pay more than Rs 125 per 40 kgs to the farmers to get sugarcane due to short crop black marketing.
A sudden 27 percent increase of Rs 22 per 40 kgs ie Rs 550 per ton in the sugarcane minimum price will promptly increase the cost of sugar production which will result further rise in the sugar price for the consumers. The PSMA has time and again requested both Federal and Provincial Governments to also fix the sugar price in line with the minimum sugarcane price for a level playing field for the sugar industry.
The price announced by the Sugarcane Control Board is poised to destroy Sindh sugar industry and to harm growers' interests by promoting middlemen culture and black marketing of the commodity. The PSMA-Sindh Zone requested the Chief Minister and Minister of Agriculture Sindh to intervene in the price issue and revise it to a reasonable level.-PR