Indian sugar mills association

State cane growers eye UP sugar mills

Date:	19 Dec 2011

Source:	The Tribune

Reporter:	Yoginder Gupta

News ID:	773

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Uttar Pradesh offers Rs 20 more per quintal

Chandigarh, December 18: In the past many years cane growers of UP had been bringing their crop to Haryana sugar mills. The reason was not that they were getting a lesser price for their crop in their state than in Haryana. But they found that the payment by the mills was more prompt in Haryana than their own state.

However, this year the trend may be reversed. It is for the first time that UP has announced the higher state advisory price of sugarcane than in Haryana. The price difference is about Rs 20 per quintal, which the Haryana growers are finding very tempting.

Informed sources say so far farmers of Haryana have adopted a wait-and-watch policy. In the past the UP mills had often defaulted on making payment to the farmers. This year the UP Government has ensured that the outstanding amount of the farmers was cleared by the mills before the start of the crushing season. The sources say that this being the election year the UP Government would keep pressure on the mills to be prompt in making the payment. But once the elections are declared, the pressure might not work. The sources say the price difference is also because of the elections. Satpal Kaushik, former secretary of the Haryana Congress, dubbed the UP rates of sugarcane as “election price”.

The state advisory price in Haryana, which has raised the cane price by Rs 11 per quintal this year, is Rs 231 per quintal for early variety, Rs 226 for mid variety and Rs 221 for general variety. UP pays Rs 250 per quintal for early variety and Rs 240 for general variety. It has also fixed Rs 235 per quintal for unapproved varieties, the sugar content in which is very low.

The price difference between the two states pinches the cane growers along the Yamuna when they find that just across the river their peers, whose cost of production is equivalent to theirs, are getting Rs 20 a quintal more. In Haryana there are six sugar mills near the Yamuna.

Kaushik, who had been involved in various agitations launched by the cane growers from time to time, says the sugar mills should pay bonus to the cane growers in their own interest because if the sugar cane crop did not remain lucrative the farmers would shift to other crops, which would not be in the long-term interest of the mills.

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