The sugar mills of Peshawar valley has started the crushing season of the crop 2012-13 as Khazana Sugar Mills (KSM) and Premier Sugar Mills (PSM) Mardan have warmed up their boilers on November 12 and 15, respectively. Talking to Business Recorder, Sugarcane Commissioner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Anwar Khan said that during the meeting of Sugar Control Board, comprising of the representatives of growers and sugar millers, both were agreed on the starting of sugarcane crushing from November 12.
He said that with consultation of both growers and millers and taking into consideration the price of the commodity in Punjab and Sindh, the price of 40 kilogram sugarcane crop in KP has been fixed at Rs 170. He said that the price of the commodity in Sindh is Rs 172 per 40 kilogram.
When asked about the starting of sugarcane crushing by four sugar mills of D.I. Khan, the Cane Commissioner said that the problems of the mills of that region is totally different and they are particularly facing the problem of recovery. However, he said that crushing season in that region will also start by November 28. He said that according to the Sugar Act, the crushing season should start during the period from October 1 to November 30.
On contact, an official of Premier Sugar Mills, Mardan said that they had already started their crushing season from November 15 with sufficient supply of the commodity. The views of the officials of Khazana Sugar Mills (KSM), which had started crushing on November 12, were not different from PSM Mardan. In the meanwhile, Kissan Board, KP has protested the injustice met out to growers in the fixation of sugarcane price in the province. They said that last year, the price of 50-kilogram commodity was Rs 337.50 while for this year it had fixed at Rs 212.