HYDERABAD: Withdrawing their Dec 13 decision to stop cane crushing, owners of Sindh-based sugar mills on Tuesday announced resumption of the process.

The development came at a meeting of representatives of millers and sugar cane growers in Karachi. Sindh Agriculture Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal chaired the meeting.

The Dec 13 announcement was made by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PMSA) which had cited below the requirement supply of cane from growers as the reason.

Most mills abruptly stopped cane crushing the next day causing resentment and panic among cane growers, whose organisations reacted sharply amid fear of heavy losses to the farming community. Thousands of labourers earning their livelihood at mills and in farms were also rendered without work due to the closure. The minister convened the meeting to sort out the issue as closure of as many as 17 mills had hit the 2016-17 season.

The millers believed that cane growers had withheld full supplies to them anticipating that this would force them to procure their crop at a higher rate. The Sindh government had fixed the minimum cane procurement rate at Rs182/40kg for the 2016-17 season.

During the week-long closure of mills, growers’ organisations held protests in different parts of the province urging the government to intervene in the matter.

After the Karachi meeting, Sindh Cane Commissioner Agha Zaheer confirmed to the media that the mills had agreed to resume cane crushing on Wednesday.

Leaders of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and Sindh Growers Alliance including Mahmood Nawaz Shah, Nabi Bux Sathio, Zahid Bhurgari, Nawaz Zubair and Ali Palh represented growers at the meeting.

They contested millers’ claim about low supplies and argued that had they been facing a serious situation, they would have informed them [growers’ organisations] or complained to the government. They described the millers’ act of shutting down their mills without consulting their [growers’] organisations as unjustifiable.

Mahmood Nawaz Shah argued that if some growers might have stopped supplies to seek a higher rate, the entire community could not be punished.

He said that millers should also avoid raising objections over different approved varieties of sugar cane on any grounds because they had the option of pick and choose.

The minister told the millers that he himself was a paddy grower and knew that growers always wanted the best rates. So, there should be no objection if growers preferred the buyers offering them a rate higher than the official rate, he said.

Mr Siyal made it clear that the provincial government could intervene only in a situation where the offered cane price was below the notified rate.

According to a government officer, the millers themselves were in a quandary after halting the operation and crushing at their mills as they were going to lose the peak crushing season and their competitors in the market were lifting sugar cane in bulk. “The [millers] also wanted the issue to be resolved as early as possible,” he said about proceedings of the meeting, adding that there were even varying views between the millers over the closure.

Nearly half of the total 38 sugar mills in Sindh (17) had stopped cane crushing in response to the Dec 13 PSMA decision.

The cane crushing process will continue till March.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2016