HYDERABAD: Two sugar mills in upper and lower Sindh have started crushing sugar cane to mark the commencement of 2021-22 season amid skyrocketing price of the sweetener and reports that some mills have not cleared outstanding dues of cane growers to this day.

The Kiran sugar mills in Rohri in upper Sindh started crushing on Nov 8 and the Matiari sugar mills in lower region of the province began crushing on Wednesday.

“They [Matiari sugar mills management] have committed to pay Rs250 per 40 kg sugar cane price once price notification has been issued by Sindh government,” said Nadeem Shah, a cane producer. Matiari sugar mills is owned by Jamotes, who are associated with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

He expects to reap 1,000 maunds (40 kg) of sugar cane per acre this year from his 47 acres. “Last year he had harvested 9,000 maunds an acre. This year crop’s size looks impressive,” said Shah.

Matiari sugar mills management had said that they would abide by the government’s notification on the rate for sugar cane. “So growers have started supplying cane to the mills,” he said.

The cane was grown on close to 290,000 hectares in 2020-21 season (93pc of sowing target) compared with 286,090ha of 2019-20 season. Last year, 15,524,728 tonnes of cane was crushed by 32 mills of Sindh out of 38 and 1,556,268 tonnes of sugar was produced with an average 10.064 pc sugar recovery.

In 2019-20 season, 1,459,234 tonnes of sugar was produced out of 14,286,367 tonnes of sugar cane with an average 10.130pc sucrose recovery.

Three mills, Pangrio sugar mills in Badin district, Tando Mohammad Khan sugar mills and Najma sugar factory in Mirpurkhas, have been closed for around 10 years while Mirza sugar mills in Badin district, Abdullah Shah Ghazi mills in Thatta and Seri sugar mills in Hyderabad district have not been participating in sugar cane crushing for some unknown reasons.

Growers anticipate raise in price, liabilities

Most sugar factories are likely to start crushing from Nov 15 as the amended Sugar Factories Control Act allows the mills to start crushing not later than Nov 30.

Sugar mills owners justify the delay on grounds that sugar cane does not usually mature by November while the growers reject their contention.

The growers’ bodies always press for commencement of crushing in October as was the case when the law in question was not amended. Sugar cane in lower Sindh matures by October and that is why his organisation wants the crushing season to start in October, according to Sindh Abadgar Board vice president Mahmood Nawaz Shah.

“When mills management in our area approached me for supply of sugar cane I told them they should pay a price they pay comfortably to middlemen and not less than that. Only then I will be willing to supply them my crop,” said Azizullah Memon, a sugar cane producer of Tando Allahyar.

Sindh Abadgar Ittehad president Nawab Zubair Talpur claimed that some mills had started complaining that growers were not providing them cane. “Look at their [mills] stance. The mills making this claim have themselves not yet cleared liabilities of growers towards sugar cane’s price of past years,” said Talpur.

Talpur grows sugar cane in Tando Mohammad Khan and Umerkot district in Kunri and supplies the crop to two different factories.

According to him, Matiari, Faran and Mirpurkhas sugar factories have not cleared dues of 2018-19. “Sugar cane price in that year was fixed at Rs182 per 40kg on Jan 10, 2019 and before issuance of the notification these mills were paying Rs160 per 40kg to growers. But after the issuance of the notification they have not paid the difference of Rs182-160 to farmers,” he said.

Secondly, he said, the growers were also anticipating raise in cane price. “The sweetener is being sold for Rs150 per kilo in retail market. The ex-factory price of sugar is Rs142 per kilo. So, we genuinely expect the mills to pay us a price equivalent to ex-factory rate of two kilogram of sugar which will come to Rs284. We have already been demanding Rs300 per 40kg price for sugar cane,” he said.

He argued that sugar recovery remained over 10pc in Sindh’s sugar cane and believed 40 kg of sugar cane produced four kg of sugar in factory. “The factory owners get byproducts as well besides extracting 4kg sugar from 40 kg cane while they get the byproducts for free,” he said.

Cane commissioner’s posting

The provincial government fixed Nov 15 as date for commencement of cane crushing in the province in a cabinet meeting held on Nov 4 but Hyderabad-based post of cane commissioner remained vacant for a long time, which might create issues over implementation of the government directive.

Qamar Raza was posted as the cane commissioner but he was transferred following some issues that involved him with National Accountability Bureau. Since then no officer had been posted as the cane commissioner.

“We have no complaints regarding liabilities of any sugar cane grower against any sugar mills in Sindh,” said an official in the agriculture department.

Naudero sugar mills was also in the process of lighting up its boilers, he added.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2021