Sindh Abadgar Board demands fair price as factories pay Rs 400 instead of Rs 544 per 40 kg
HYDERABAD:
As farmers’ protests intensify across the province, the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has warned the provincial government against “unfairness” to sugarcane farmers, urging it to maintain 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 put the cost of production at Rs 544 per 40 kg, while producers are paid only Rs 400, well below last year’s rate of Rs 425.
The SAB lamented that influential political families controlling the country’s 75 sugar mills are exploiting the current political environment by delaying the crushing season to December, in violation of the Sugar Factories Control Act of 1950, which mandates an October start.
This delay, the SAB said, not only reduces the sucrose content of the cane but also stalls the cultivation of Rabi crops, inflicting financial losses worth tens of billions of rupees to the agricultural economy.
The council criticized the provincial government for “ignoring its regulatory responsibility” and failing to implement the law in 2024, attributing the setback to IMF-related constraints.
Despite rising prices of sugar and its by-products, producers continue to be denied their rightful share, the meeting said, warning that misguided policies are already harming other crops as input costs soar while raw material prices fall.
The meeting was attended by SAB office bearers and farmer representatives, including Malook Nizamani, Imran Bozdar, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Taha Memon, Arbab Ahsan and Mustafa Nawaz Shah.
