KARACHI, Nov 15: Short supply of sugarcane is making Sindh sugar mills’ operations unviable and may even result in temporary winding-up of crushing, which only started in the first week of this month.

The millers are seeking provincial government intervention so that any further delay in crushing owing to short supply of cane can be avoided. They said that if the situation was allowed to persist it could result in shortage of sugar and could also induce price hike.

The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Sindh) has urged the provincial government to look into the matter, particularly when the new crushing season was already delayed by 45 days.

The PSMA pointed out that the millers in Sindh commenced crushing season for 2006-07 in the first week of this month as was committed with the federal government. However, sugarcane supplies to mills remained restricted to around 10,000 to 20,000 maunds a day, which constituted only 10 to 15 per cent of the actual crushing capacity.

The association asserted that the low-level operations of the mills was causing huge losses as they were forced to use furnace oil worth millions of rupees per day to keep their boilers running.

The PSMA is of the opinion that the sugarcane growers seem to be still in no mood to harvest cane and arrange supplies to the mills. It further stated that the growers are presently pre-occupied with sowing of wheat and harvesting rice. Consequently, sugarcane harvesting is being overlooked as there is also a shortage of labour.

As a result of this, the PSMA continued, the entire sugar industry in the province had been plunged into deep financial crisis for want of normal sugarcane supplies. Unless the sugarcane supply by the farmers was arranged expeditiously, the industry will suffer a total loss and will face severe economic consequences due to not fault of its own, the PSMA maintained.