Pakistan. Sugar mills end crushing season

All sugar mills in the country on Wednesday ended the sugarcane crushing season 2009-10, it is learnt. According to Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), more than 70 percent sugar mills had stopped crushing on March 1, while the processing units in three sugar producing provinces, including Punjab, Sindh and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), stopped production on March 10, 2010.

Sources told Business Recorder: "It would be the shortest crushing season in the history of the country." "Before start of crushing season, the sugar mills light up their boilers on October 1 to start sugar production, and the season lasts till April 30 of the every year," they said, adding that this year crushing started on December 1, 2009 and ended on March 10, 2010 indicating massive sugar crises.

They said the sugar mills could not start crushing season earlier due to unnecessary action of the government against sugar mills, bank default and non-issuance of the loan from the banks and DFIs. On the other hand, the growers refused to provide sugarcane stocks to the mills and sold whole crop to the middlemen, they added.

They said the government had increased the minimum support price of the sugarcane by 22 percent from Rs 81 per Rs 101 per 40 kilogram for crushing season 2009-10. Keeping shortage of crop in view, the growers has increased the support price up to Rs 220 per maund to Rs 240 per 40 kilogram doubling the production cost, they added.

Due to low yield of sugarcane crop during 2009-10 and there being a large number of sugar mills in the country a new war had started in the industry where every next miller was trying to combat his rival by purchasing maximum crop. "Taking maximum advantage of the situation, the growers doubled the minimum price to earn more from less available sugarcane crop," they added.

They said the commercial players had purchased huge stocks of the crop from growers before the beginning of sugarcane crushing season to manufacture "gur" (raw sugar). "Many sugar mill owners forcibly purchased sugarcane from the commercial players at exorbitant rates to light up the boilers of their factories," they added. Talking to Business Recorder, Chairman of PSMA, Iskandar M. Khan, said the association has scheduled annual general body meeting on March 11, 2010 to discuss the performance of the sugar mills during current crushing season.

source: blackseagrain.net