Sindh sugar mills shut down on supply constraints

KARACHI: At least 16 sugar mills in Sindh brought their production to a halt on a shortage of sugarcane supply from the growers, an industry official said on Thursday – a claim the farmers refuted. 

The official said growers in lower Sindh were demanding Rs250 to Rs300/40 kilogram of sugarcane against the official price of Rs182.  There are 28 sugar mills in the province. Of that, 16 are located in the areas from Benazirabad (Nawabshah) to Thatta districts. 

The Sindh Sugar Mills Association (south zone), representing these factories in lower Sindh, were observing go-slow, which entered into the second day on Thursday. Mills in the north zone are running as usual.

“We were getting partial supply,” an association’s official said. “Shortage of supply forced us to stop the mills until the issue is resolved.” The industry was in favour of staring crushing from December 15. But, the mills started crushing from November 15 on the growers’ demand.

Sugarcane farmers argued that around eight mills in the lower Sindh were running in full swing on December 8, while the association complained of ‘so-called’ supply constraint.

Mehmood Nawaz, secretary general of Sindh Abadgar Board said the mills were crushing 100,000 to 160,000 maunds of sugarcane daily. Nawaz said Dighri Sugar Mills had supplied 500 truckloads on Wednesday. “Dighri management said it would be difficult for them to close down with such a huge supply.”

Sehri Sugar Mills and Dewan Sugar Mills were also not in support of closing the mills, he added. Nawaz said Mehran and Faran Sugar Mills had increased their crushing capacity to double than their original design and they might have felt the supply issue.  “Otherwise, there is no shortage of cane in the province,” he added. “The strike would affect the daily wagers, transporters and growers.”