Sugarcane crushing to begin from 1st week of November

ISLAMABAD—All the sugar mills will start sugarcane crushing in November, Sindh will start crushing of sugarcane during first week of November while Punjab and NWFP will start sugarcane crushing during middle of November 2006.
This was decided in a meeting between Secretary Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Muhammad Ismail Qureshi and Secretary Ministry of Industry and Production Kamran Rasool with PSMA at Lahore here on Monday.
In the meeting, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) assured that sugarcane growers shall be paid at the minimum rate of Rs. 60/40 Kgs in Sindh and Rs 65/40 Kgs in NWFP and that the growers will be paid promptly by the mills.
The PSMA also assured that they will work together with the government to ensure that the retail price of sugar remain stable in the domestic market.
It was decided in the meeting that the government will advise State Bank to provide necessary financing without any undue conditions to ensure payment to sugarcane growers.
Fair trail will be provided to guard against disruptive dumping of sugar in the domestic market.
It was decided that TCP will continue to play its interventionist role to guard against escalation of sugar prices in the domestic market.
PSMA thanked the government of Pakistan for playing a balanced role in defusing the sugar crises while safeguarding the interest of growers, consumers as well as legitimate concern of the sugar industry. —Agencies