Sugar, sugar: ‘Mill owners manipulating sugarcane prices’

The government has fixed the rate at Rs182 per 40kgs of sugarcane

HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has appealed to the sugarcane growers to sell their crop at the government fixed rates of Rs182 per 40 kilogrammes to the sugar mills.

A meeting of the chamber on Sunday took exception to what they described as rate manipulation by the mills which are allegedly offering less than the official rate. The farmers' representatives from Karachi, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Sukkur, Ghotki and other districts participated in the meeting through video conference. The meeting was chaired by surgeon Dr Nadeem Qamar.

Qamar asked the provincial government and the Sindh cane commissioner to take notice of the discrepancies in pricing and penalise the mills which were continuing to exploit the growers. The cane crop, according to Qamar, is cultivated over 730,000 acres in Sindh.

Last week, the farmers resorted to protests by blocking roads, highways and halting the sale of cane crop to the mills in reaction to the Rs155 per 40kg rate which was announced by the government. Their protests forced the government to yield to their demand of Rs182 per 40 kg of cane.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2014.