LAHORE, Nov 30: The Punjab chapter of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has no plans to suspend cane crushing as harvest of the crop has started picking up in the province.

Sindh has recently suspended crushing for 20 days following slow arrival of cane at the mills. Commenting on the situation, PSMA chief Zaka Ashraf said Sindh had a very poor cane crop because of drought.

It naturally hit millers who were investing millions of rupees to keep their mills running. Their daily expenditure far exceeded their income and they had no choice but to wait for cane arrival to speed up before starting crushing, he said.

The situation in Punjab has not been any better, but the millers have somehow survived the lean period. The cane arrival has just started improving because cotton picking in the southern Punjab and rice harvesting have been finalized and labour from both crops would now be engaged in cane cutting, he added.

The sugar millers are also meeting government officials on Friday to evolve a consensus on new price of sugar, cane and discuss cane act. The meeting would also be discussing water conservation strategies, specially proposals put forward by the PSMA during its last meeting with the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the government.