KARACHI, Nov 20: The cane crushing, which was officially due to start on Nov 10, has been delayed in Sindh due to insufficient availability of cane, low sucrose content and lack of transport. Of the 28 mills, only 10 came into production by Thursday.Sindh Cane Commissioner Nazeer Jamali hopes that most of the mills would start production in a week’s time because they have no option. He agreed that the delay is due to less supply of cane to the mills. Some mills are working on only one-third capacity.The mills, which have started crushing are: Al-Abbas, Faran, Habib, Matiari, Mehran, Mirpurkhas, Rani Pur, Sanghar, Tharparker and Khairpur sugar mills. Kiran and Sindh Abadgar have sought grace period until December to start crushing due to some problems.

The former is said to be short of capital due to credit squeeze by banks. The growers have refused to supply cane on credit to the mill, which already owes cane dues from the last season. The Abadgar, which was damaged in a blast last season, is waiting for some accessories from HMC Taxila.

Agriculture secretary Subhago Khan Jatoi has warned mills owners to start crushing by Nov 25, failing which action would be taken against them.

Mr Jamali said about 10 mills in Thatta and Badin areas have not yet started crushing due to shortage of cane and lack of transport. The transporters have not returned to the area as most of them belonged to Northern Areas now suffering from violence.Some mills have complained about low sucrose content, which at present has come out to be 7.9 per cent compared to the base level of 8.6 per cent. This will result in low production of sugar during the current season, which is already estimated to be down by at least 40 per cent.

The amount of cane crushed during the 2007-08 season was 16.5 million tons, yielding an output of 1.65 million tons.

Many growers switched over to other crops after they failed to get a fair price and timely payment from mills during the last season, which witnessed a bumper crop.

Some mills already owe them about Rs856 million for the cane supplied last year.

According to market sources, growers will have an edge over the mills in view of the short cane crop this season, which would result in a tug of war among mills to obtain maximum supply.

Due to increase in cane demand, sources said the cane price is likely to jump to Rs100-120 per maund against an official price of Rs81 fixed by the government.

According to sources, the season has started with the sale of cane on the official price and some mills are paying Rs3 as premium on good quality cane.

Shunid Qureshi, former chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Sindh zone, told Dawn that the supply of cane had been below normal, which has prevented mills to start crushing. About the cane prices, he said that the price trend would be clear once all the mills come in production.