Sindh Abadgar Board demands fair price as millers pay Rs 400 instead of Rs 544 per 40 kg
HYDERABAD:
As ongoing farmers’ protests intensify across the province, the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has warned the provincial government against “injustice” to sugarcane growers and urged it to uphold its own assessment of a fair support price.
In a meeting chaired by Mehmood Nawaz Shah on Sunday, SAB reminded the government that its calculations place the cost of production at Rs544 per quintal. 40 kg, yet growers are 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 took advantage of the prevailing political environment by postponing the crushing season to December, in violation of the Sugar Factory Control Act, 1950, which mandates an October start.
This delay, the SAB said, not only reduces the sucrose content of sugarcane but also halts the cultivation of Rabi crops, causing economic losses of tens of billions of rupees to the agricultural economy.
The board criticized the provincial government for “ignoring its regulatory responsibilities” and failing to implement the law by 2024, attributing this retreat to IMF-related constraints.
Despite rising prices of sugar and its by-products, producers continue to be denied their due share, said the meeting, which warned that flawed policies are already hurting other crops as input costs rise while commodity prices fall.
The meeting was attended by SAB officials and farmers’ representatives including Malook Nizamani, Imran Bozdar, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Taha Memon, Arbab Ahsan and Mustafa Nawaz Shah.
