BAHAWALPUR: Sugarcane growers have expressed concern over the mills’ announcement that they will wind up the crushing season by Feb 15.

Kissan Board of Pakistan office-bearers including senior vice-president Jam Hazoor Bakhsh said the sugar mills in south Punjab had displayed notices that they would shut down the crushing of sugarcane by Feb 15.

The farmers, they said, rejected the unilateral decision and condemned the owners of the sugar mills for creating a panic situation.

They deplored that the decision was meant to force the growers to sell their produce at throwaway prices to the mills.

He said that during the previous years it had been the usual practice that the crushing season was normally closed in March keeping in view the standing crop of sugarcane which the growers disposed of by that time ensuring the availability to the mills for crushing.

He claimed that by closing the mills about one and-a-half months ahead, thousands of growers could be deprived of their produce and their payments withheld by the mills managements.

They urged the district administration to take notice of the decision which would cause financial distress to the growers on a large scale.

Officials of the mills managements said they had advanced the date of sugarcane crushing closure and fixed Feb 15 and the growers should ensure the supply of their cane and receive payments. They said they were forced to shut down the crushing season because of unavailability of sugarcane which a majority of the growers had already exported to Sindh.

They said the mills could not purchase the sugarcane at high rates and had to take the decision to offset the impact.

They also alleged that middlemen were also active and exploiting them.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2021