BADIN, Dec 24: At least three sugar mills out of six in Badin District have started purchasing sugarcane at higher rates ignoring the purchase price fixed by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), which had fixed it at Rs42 per maund.

The Bawani Talhar, Army Sugar Mills Badin, and Ansari Sugar Mills Matli were offering between Rs58 and Rs60 per maund to the growers.

The sugar mills took this step following the decision by the sugar cane growers to stop supplying their produce to the former at low prices.

The remaining mill owners in the district were abiding by the PSMA’s decision. They have decided to register a strong protest and file a complaint before the PSMA against the management of the other three mills which were violating the rate agreement.

However, on the other hand, they are contemplating to start lifting sugarcane crops from the fields.

The sugarcane growers blamed the PSMA for fixing unjustified rates without considering the expenses being incurred on sugarcane cultivation. They also accused the mill owners for forcing the growers to sell their produce to middlemen while incurring a loss between Rs6 and Rs8 per maund.

They said that the mill owners had created circumstances for the sugarcane growers to either starve or sell their crops at low rates while incurring losses.

This sort of attitude by the mills’ management made the growers decide that they were not going to supply their produce to the mills.

The representatives of the Laar Abadgar, Badin District, Haji Mehmood Ghumman told this correspondent that the PSMA and the mill owners were responsible for giving advantage to middlemen and making farmers incur heavy losses.

They demanded the PSMA to fix the price of sugarcane at Rs60 per maund in the interest of the growers as well as in their own interest.

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