KARACHI, Sept 18: Every year the sugarcane crushing season is marked with brawls between the millers and the Sindh government over the date to start crushing in the province. It is true for this year as well. The Sindh cane commissioner has unilaterally declared October 1, 2006 for the commencement of the crushing season.

Industry sources told Dawn on Monday that the crushing date was fixed despite the fact that the Sindh Sugarcane Board on August 26 called a meeting for fixing a date to start crushing season. It was attended by all the stakeholders, including growers and millers and there was a unanimous decision not to start crushing before November.

The participants of the meeting put a strong argument for starting boilers some time in November. They said that since rain water was stagnant in the fields and with the advent of Ramazan the availability of labour would be difficult. This might result in interruption in smooth working of mills.

The millers also pointed out that since most of the labour used for loading and unloading of trucks carrying sugarcane from fields to factories belong to the NWFP, it would be difficult to get sufficient manpower during Ramazan.

Furthermore, there is still shortage of trucks for the haulage of sugarcane as they are still occupied in the earthquake affected areas.

Above all, the millers pointed out that the sugarcane crop was still not fully mature and by delaying the crushing season all these issues, including better yield, would be resolved. In case the crop is not allowed to mature fully the contents of sucrose would remain low, they added.

Despite the fact that recent heavy rains caused damage to the standing crop of sugarcane to the extent of 5 to 10 per cent, it equally proved to be a boon for growers as it has increased the per acre yield in many areas.

Unlike in the past, when the sugarcane crop suffered from the shortage of irrigation water, the current monsoon rains have made a lot of difference by breaking the dry-spell persisting for last many years.

To utter dismay of the millers the cane commissioner Sindh on Sept 8, 2006 issued a notification asking sugar mills to start their boilers from October 1. The commissioner also quoted section 8 of the Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, under which this decision was taken.

As a result of the notification a brawl has started between the provincial government and the millers over the commencement of crushing season 2006-07. This is repeated every year wherein a lot of time and energy is wasted on an issue, which should wholly be handled on technical grounds rather than through an administrative order.

The millers say that the provincial government uses Sugar Factories Control Act 1950, to twist their arms, although the act has actually become redundant and does not meet the changed requirements of the sugar trade.

When the law was enacted there were fewer sugar mills in the province and the availability of sugarcane was in abundance and in order to protect the interests of the growers a crushing timeframe was fixed from October 1 to April 15 of the next year, they added.

However, the situation now has all together changed as there are around 28 sugar mills in the pro-

vince and most of them run under capacity. This means that the supply of sugarcane is less than the requirement and the needs of these mills.

“If the situation has changed then there is no reason for the provincial government to insist on such a law which has lost relevance with the ground realities,” the millers remarked.

An analyst said that the timeframe provided in the sugar factories act is of a descriptive nature rather than anything else. It means that no crushing could be carried before October 1, and after April 1, of a crushing season.

The millers, who requested for anonymity, said that if they did not follow these directives they are issued notices for defying and non-compliance of official orders.

The question is how long the province could afford the brawl as this unproductive argument about the start of crushing was not only causing unnecessary loss in term of production and its cost but was also resulting in waste of time and energy of both the industry and the provincial bureaucracy, the millers said.

If at all the time has to be determined as to when the crushing should start it should be referred to the sugar technologists or the farm exporters who are better equipped to know the status of the standing sugarcane crop, they suggested.