Lucknow, 3 December: Bogged down by the inordinate delay of the Uttar Pradesh government in announcing the sugarcane State Advised Price(SAP) for 2012-13 crushing season, the sugar mills have, nonetheless, started to function and produced nearly 2.6 million quintals of the sweetener.

About 100 units of the total 125 sugar mills in UP are crushing cane and the remaining are likely to join soon.

The state mills had crushed about 31.9 million quintals of cane with the sugar recovery rate still lower at 8.24 per cent. It would improve as the crushing advances.

Meanwhile, the millers are making another pitch for lower cane prices in the state claiming difficult market conditions for the sugar sector.

UP Sugar Mills Association, an affiliate of Indian Sugar Mills Association, has written a fresh letter to state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav urging the government to retain cane price at last year’s level.