SUGARCANE crushing started in the middle of the last month but millers claim they are disappointed with the slow pace of cane supplies. Sugarcane growers, however, dismiss their claim, saying that harvesting of crop is picking-up as a normal practice.

Sugar mills started crushing since November 15 as per agreement reached between farmers and the Sindh government. But on November 24, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) Sindh zone placed an advertisement in the local newspapers that they were hit by a slow pace of cane harvesting.

Currently, 34 out of 38 mills are crushing cane and one more is likely to start this season.

“This is the reason many growers anticipate a raise in the rate and that’s why they are perhaps gradually harvesting their crop avoiding bulk supplies”, says the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture General Secretary, Nabi Bux Sathio. He completely rules out the fact that millers are facing a no-cane situation.

SCA Vice-President Zaid Bhurgari argues that sugar factory owners are getting proper supplies. It is well-known that supplies always gradually pick up after harvest starts. There are reports that while a sizeable quantity of sugarcane is being crushed in mills, another similar quantity is lying in the mills’ yard to be offloaded.

SCA Vice-President Zaid Bhurgari argues that sugar factory owners are getting proper supplies. It is well-known that supplies always gradually pick up after the harvest starts

Matiari Sugar Mill’s owner, Mohammad Ali Shah Jamote also confirms that his mill was getting proper supplies. “Rather, it is picking up”, he says. Likewise, the general manager of a Mirpurkhas-based sugar mill (wants to remain anonymous) says his mill is operating at 75-80pc of his mill’s crushing capacity. Initial days of this season are considered a lean period, but given the present situation, crushing would be in full swing by the first week of December.

Factories in Tando Mohammad Khan and Thatta districts are offering a rate of Rs160/40kg on varieties with ‘low yields’ or, according to Sathio, making a 10pc deduction on the overall sugarcane weight. In some cases, growers are told by the mills that varieties like PSf-238 and PR-1,000 would be received at the fag end of this season, like in January or February.

Sathio also claims in some cases growers have received Rs192/40kg (inclusive of transportation charges) by a factory in Mirpurkhas that got cane from Tando Mohammad Khan. He wonders when mills are meeting 90pc of their crushing requirements in Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan and Mirpurkhas, why would they suspend crushing?

Price of sugar has not dropped in the retail market even after timely crushing of sugarcane, unlike last year when mills started crushing by the second half of December. Sugar’s wholesale price was reported at Rs60/1kg and retail price at Rs63/1kg, until November 27, according to a retailer.

Supplies of sugarcane are also continuing from Punjab as the Sindh government didn’t agree with growers to ban the inter-provincial cane movement, because a similar ban could not be enforced on wheat on the proposal of the food department. The upper Sindh’s sugar mills, especially those in Ghotki district, order their crop from Punjab, owing to their proximity to its border.

Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) vice president Mehmood Nawaz says the trend of crushing has not declined and is rather increasing now.

According to him, sugar mills in Mirpurkhas, Digri and Mehran are daily crushing 140,000 maunds, 100,000 maunds and 185,000 maunds of cane, respectively. Even those sugar mills that delay payments are not complaining of a ‘no-cane situation’, he says, adding, “Such an advertisement by PSMA Sindh zone is simply mind-boggling.

PSMA Sindh zone’s Secretary Qasim Pahore says substantial crushing is not yet being seen, and PSMA had informed the government that starting crushing before December 15 neither benefits neither millers nor growers but the government insisted that crushing must begin by mid-November.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, December 5th, 2016