Confrontations between sugar mill owners and the provincial authorities over the start of the crushing season and the purchase price of cane have become an annual feature.

And the main sufferers are growers who are paid every year less for their efforts and consumers who have to pay more for sugar.

According to newspaper reports, PASMA, the association of sugar mill owners, has said that this year the crushing season will commence on January 2007 on the plea that there is sufficient stock of sugar and, therefore, crushing before January will cause loss to mill owners.

According to the mill owners, 1.6 million tons of sugar is available in the country out of which 0.8 million ton is stocked with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan, about 0.4 million ton with traders and another 0.4 million ton with the mill owners.

These figures are contained in different statements of PASMA and neither the federal nor the provincial governments have cared to confirm or deny the claim.

It is understandable that the TCP being a public sector organisation under the control of the federal government has stocked sufficient sugar as a buffer stock to deal with a difficult situation, but PASMA exploits its stock to its benefit.

It is known to all stakeholders that the TCP stock is mainly for use by Utility Store Corporation where the federal government subsidises sugar in common man’s interest.

As regards the stock with traders, it is difficult to believe that they will stock sugar knowing that the crushing season is to begin by October or November and take undue risk.

The stocks claimed to be with mill owners are, however, surprising and confusing because when the federal government had asked the NAB to investigate the issue of high price of sugar in the market they had categorically stated that mill owners were innocent and they were not involved in hoarding and that there was no stock with any sugar mill.

PASMA was well aware that if NAB was to investigate, quite a few things, other than hoarding, would have surfaced, including saving sales tax in connivance with the relevant department, less yield of sugar from sugarcane, besides purchase of cane from middlemen with a view to covering up activities which tantamount to exploitation of growers and theft of taxes.

PASMA had to seek its peers’ help to save them from any possible action.

And the job to protect the interest of mill owners was done well because the investigation ordered by the federal government was shelved.

In the production process, the major stakeholder is the farmer who produces raw material for the industry and looks after the crop for almost 12 to 15 months after preparation of land and procurement of seed.

The cultivation of sugarcane starts from August to October and the farmer has to take care of the crop with timely application of inputs, such as water, Gud, fertiliser and pesticides.

The farmer has also to arrange for adequate funds for harvesting the transportation of cane from the field to the mill.

The farmer has to wait for more than 15 months to reap the returns but gets disappointed when the mill owner delays or defers payments.

There is sufficient evidence on record proving beyond doubt that payments to growers were deferred for months by the millers.

The payment of premium has been pending for five years and a case is pending in the Supreme Court because the millers have filed an appeal against the decision of the Sindh High Court.

The stand of Sindh’s farmers on the issue of sugarcane price is logical. During the crushing period of 2005-06, the support price of cane was fixed at Rs45 per 40kg in Punjab and Rs48 per 40kg in Sindh.

The higher rate in Sindh is a traditional practice because of the higher recovery of cane in Sindh than in the NWFP and Punjab.

Farmers pay a maximum of Rs3.20 per 40kg as transportation charges in Punjab, whereas those in Sindh have to pay Rs7 per 40 kg.

Sindh growers started supplying cane to the mills at Rs48 per 40kg but the cane price in Punjab and the NWFP rose, touching Rs70 to Rs80 per 40kg.

The farmers in Sindh stopped supplying cane and demanded an increase in price but PASMA (Sindh) refused, which led to a confrontation between millers and farmers.

The chief minister of Sindh intervened and increased the price from Rs48 to Rs60 per 40kg.

Eventually, proper crushing started in January 2006 and the cane price rose, touching Rs100 per 40kg at the end of February due to competition.

The mill owners started a dispute on rate at the beginning of the season and were not prepared to pay Rs60, but their objective was to squeeze the crushing period from 180 days to 90 days in order to pressurise the farmer to harvest the crop within a limited period and to force him to spend more on harvesting and delivery to the mill.

As a result, the country suffered a shortage of sugar and the government earned people’s wrath and had to suffer heavy losses due to duty free import of sugar.

The millers not only try to raise the issue of price but also delay the crushing season because recovery touches some 12 per cent after the month of December.

The farmers and the nation are thereby deprived of additional wheat output (at least 0.1 million tonnes) because at least 15 to 20 per cent of the land under cane cultivation can be brought under wheat cultivation if the crushing starts in late October or early November.

During the current season, the situation is not different from what it was last year. The Punjab government has increased the support price from Rs45 to Rs60 per 40kg as the NWFP government has fixed Rs65 per 40kg and the Sindh government has raised it from Rs60 to Rs67 per 40kg.

But PASMA (Sindh) has rejected the notification of the government and is currently negotiating with the federal government.

—The writer is president of Sindh Farmers Association.