Chairman Pakistan Sugar Mills Association Javed Kayani has said that sugar industry would commence crushing in time. He was talking to media in response to a news item, which appeared in a section of press. He said sugar industry fully understands the issues relating to growers and would continue to strive for their betterment. He said, at present, the sugarcane crop is not mature as the recovery only improves with the onset of winter.
He said the recent floods have also badly devastated sugarcane crop. The fields are still logged with water, which adversely affected the standing crops. Javed Kayani said the sugar industry in discharge of its social responsibility started crushing season early last year as well but because of lower contents of sugar and absence of early maturing varieties it is a national loss to crush sugarcane at low recovery.
He said to rationalise the start of crushing season and to facilitate both sugarcane growers and the sugar mills a mechanism to link sugarcane recovery with price was suggested and proposed. Punjab government took the initiative last year and issued a notification to this effect, which was later rescinded for improvement of modalities. The growers associations had also supported this proposal.
Javed Kayani said this system would help to eliminate inefficiencies from the fields and growers will have the incentive to wait until maturity of their crop in order to maximise their returns. He said sugar industry would continue to have a grower's friendly policy. All allegations against the sugar industry are baseless and ill founded. He said we respect law and work for the welfare of our growers as we have a life-long relationship with them.