HYDERABAD (January 05 2004): Sugarcane growers have expressed apprehensions that if the crushing by sugar mills continues at the present pace it might leave huge quantity of sugarcane uncrushed resulting in enormous losses to them.

Quoting the statistic released by Sindh Cane Commissioner's office they said that about 2 million tons sugarcane had been crushed by the end of December out of the estimated production of 101.6 million tons.

The growers say that one-month delay in commencement of sugar season and the slow pace of crushing would have negative impact on wheat production and it would be extremely difficult for the sugarcane growers to achieve the wheat production target of 2.3 million tons fixed by the Federal Agriculture Committee.

The cane crushing units attribute the slow pace of crushing to non-availability of transport while growers allege that mill owners have introduced the element of middleman to exploit the situation by offering lowest possible price.

The Sindh Cane Commissioner, taking notice of the situation, has convened a meeting of Sindh Sugar Board on January 7 to resolve the problems, including payment to growers of outstanding dues and quality premium amounting to Rs 1.56 billion.

Meanwhile, cane growers are demanding that legal action should be initiated against the management of sugar mills which failed to clear the growers' dues.

Sindh Cane Commissioner Nazar Muhammad Baloch told Business Recorder that if consensus between the growers and mills owners was not developed during the meeting, legal action would be taken against the defaulting mills.

Courtesy Business Recorder