Cane growers decry unfair pricing, delays in crushing

Sindh Abadgar Board demands fair price as mills pay Rs400 instead of Rs544 per 40kg

HYDERABAD:

As farmers' ongoing protests intensify across the province, the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has warned the provincial government against "injustice" to sugarcane growers, urging it to uphold its own assessment of a fair support price.

At a meeting chaired by Mehmood Nawaz Shah on Sunday, the SAB reminded the government that its calculations place the cost of production at Rs544 per 40kg, yet growers are being paid only Rs400, well below last year's rate of Rs425.

The SAB lamented that influential political families controlling the country's 75 sugar mills were exploiting the prevailing political environment by delaying the crushing season to December, in violation of the Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, which mandates an October start.

This delay, the SAB said, not only reduces sucrose content in cane but also stalls cultivation of Rabi crops, inflicting financial losses of tens of billions of rupees on the agricultural economy.

The board criticised the provincial government for "ignoring its regulatory responsibility" and failing to implement the act in 2024, attributing this retreat to IMF-related constraints.

Despite rising prices of sugar and its byproducts, growers continue to be denied their due share, the meeting said, warning that flawed policy is already hurting other crops as input costs soar while commodity prices decline.

The meeting was attended by SAB office bearers and farmers' representatives, including Malook Nizamani, Imran Bozdar, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Taha Memon, Arbab Ahsan and Mustafa Nawaz Shah.