ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Farmers are so far able to harvest only 20 per cent of sugarcane crop as government fears undue extension in the crushing season following mill owners’ threat of holding back payment to sugarcane growers this year due to unexpected fall in sugar prices.

The delay in the start of crushing season this year again was one of the few factors that made the country miss wheat sowing target by a massive 200,000 hectares because farmers were unable to clear land from sugarcane crop on time.

Sources in the federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) told Dawn that the crushing season could extend beyond March well up to April and even further if the blame game between the government and mill owners over the fall in sugar prices continued and farmers kept on receiving threats of non-payment of money.

Over the years, mills have delayed payments to sugarcane growers on various pretexts. It was only from the last couple of years that farmers were able to get payments on time.

Now, the situation is retaking its old shape when farmers would have to wait for years to get their payments cleared from the mills.

Resultantly, officials of the federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) have started holding a series of meetings with mill owners asking them to stop issuing statements indicating towards holding back payments to growers and rather accelerate the pace of crushing.

Sources told Dawn that differences between Minfal and the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) are growing over the issue of “reverse crisis” - the fall in sugar prices from Rs34 per kg to Rs23-24 per kg.

A number of meetings held between officials of Minfal and the PSMA have, so far, failed to resolve the issue.

The Minfal is of the view that the government could not do anything as a sharp fall in the sugar prices at the international market had resulted in the reduction of sugar prices in the international market and hence in Pakistan.

Minfal has conveyed to the PSMA that it should stop its hue and cry over the “reverse crisis” as the same mills had attributed the phenomenon to “market forces” when sugar was being sold at Rs42 per kg in the market in the last sugar crisis.“We are not a controlled market, but an open one. And, we have conveyed our viewpoint to millers,” a high-level official of Minfal told Dawn requesting not to be named.

He said the PSMA was unable to start crushing in the beginning of November in Sindh and the mid of November in Punjab. Mills delay the start of crushing almost every year because the longer sugarcane stands in the field, the better the quantity of sucrose level in it.

Sources in Minfal said by official standards, so far farmers should have harvested at least 35-40 per cent of the crop instead of 20 per cent.

The PSMA has threatened that farmers would suffer Rs20billion loss this year due to “reverse crisis” in the industry.

The government, the PSMA says, would also face Rs3billion losses in the sales tax area.

Iskandar M Khan, PSMA vice chairman, said the crushing was going as usual, but mills would not be able to make payments to farmers on time.

He said the association had informed Minfal on time about the reverse crisis and its impact on farmers and millers.

He said the government had so far failed to control the “crisis” and the millers would have no option but to hold back payments to farmers. He said the crushing season would be concluded on time.

“We think the government can still stabilise sugar prices if it makes sincere efforts,” Mr Khan observed.