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HYDERABAD: Sugar mill owners have agreed to pay Rs130 for 40 kilogrammes of cane as an interim relief to growers of lower Sindh for what they term non-approved varieties of sugarcane following intervention by Federal Minister for Water & Power Naveed Qamar at a meeting held in Karachi on Saturday.
“The millers have agreed after talks with farmers that they will pay Rs130 for the non-approved varieties and while the government’s rate for other varieties would stay at Rs154 per 40kg,” the minister told Dawn on phone on Sunday.
According to him, the millers insisted that they should be allowed to export buffer stock of sugar to ensure stability in prices. “The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had formed a subcommittee to look into their demand and it has recommended that initially 100,000 to 200,000 tons of sugar be allowed to be exported,” he said.
The mill owners agreed to raise the price for non-approved varieties to Rs130 from Rs94 to Rs100. There was a difference of opinion between representatives of farmers and millers but finally the two sides agreed to Rs130, he said.
The minister intervened after growers of Tando Mohammad Khan complained that mills were deducting up to 40 per cent of the cane supplied by them.
The minister had to act because of a several reasons, because the district which has four sugar mills is in his constituency and his elder brother, Dr Nadeem Qamar, heads the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.
The meeting convened by the minister was attended by Deomal, head of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Sindh Cane Commissioner Tariq Memon, SCA representative Nabi Bux Sathio, an official of the Sindh agriculture department and sugar mill owners.
According to Mr Sathio, the mill owners are obstructing usual payment to growers. In fact, he said, the millers were raising the issue of a variety of sugarcane called B-4360 banned in 1998.
“Although the variety has been wiped out and it is no longer grown by farmers the millers claim they are making deduction on account of this variety,” he said.
He said, the mills were deducting up to 40 per cent of sugarcane of the CP 245, Naya 98 and CPB7084 varieties which were first banned and then the decision was withdrawn.
“The varieties were banned but when we took up the matter with agriculture minister the notification was withdrawn in July 2011 and farmers were allowed to grow the varieties for another two years,” he said.
Sindh government has fixed Rs154 price for 40kg of sugarcane although most growers have expressed their objection. The sugar mills did not begin crushing until early December, claiming growers were not supplying them cane. But the growers rejected their claim and said that lines of trolleys laden with cane were outside the factories but they did not start crushing.
He said another meeting would be held with the owners on Saturday and the rate of Rs130 for the non-approved variety would stay till next Saturday, Feb 4.
