LAHORE, Nov 6: Sugar mills have urged the Punjab government to reduce the sugarcane support price from Rs40 per maund to Rs36-38.

The Sindh government is stated to have already slashed the support price by Rs2 to Rs41 per maund in view of the crisis of surplus in the industry.

“The Punjab government should follow the suit and bring down the sugarcane support price,” said a miller here on Thursday.

He said the sugarcane support price in the Punjab should be fixed around Rs36 in view of lower sucrose content than in Sindh.

In Sindh, the average sucrose content recovery is said to be 9.5 per cent, one per cent higher than in the Punjab.

“However, if the Punjab government is reluctant to reduce the support price to that extent, it should provide a relief of Rs2 per maund as allowed by Sindh to its mills,” he said.

He said if the sugarcane support price in the Punjab was not slashed, there were chances that the Sindh mills would start “dumping” their sugar in the Punjab and destabilize the market taking advantage of the lower sugarcane rate and higher sucrose content recovery. “It would result in a price war which would ruin the sugar industry in the Punjab,” he said.

The miller also called for fixing “district-wise support price” in the Punjab. “The sucrose content recovery is higher in the southern Punjab and lower in other parts. Hence, it is imperative that the mills located in the lower sucrose recovery areas be allowed an advantage in support price to compete with those in the higher recovery areas,” the miller said.