Pakistan sugarcane price Rs650 is the demand from farmers, who have given the government a 10 day deadline to announce support prices and start sugarcane crushing. Farmers, demanding a sugarcane price of Rs650 per maund, warned that they would march towards Islamabad if their demands were not met. The warning came at a joint press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday 4 November, and it was reported by Business Recorder on 5 November.
Kisan Ittehad is one of the groups leading the demand, along with the Sindh Abadgar Ittehad. Khalid Hussain Batth, president of Kisan Ittehad, said the government had neither issued a notification fixing the sugarcane price nor announced a date for the commencement of crushing. He announced a demand for a support price of Rs650 per maund for sugarcane and Rs4500 per maund for wheat, and he said wheat prices had continued to rise while the authorities were not taking any action. The farmers said they had waited long enough for a decision.
The sugarcane crushing season should have started on 1 November, according to the farmers, but sugar mills had yet to begin operations. Nawab Zubair Talpur, president of the Sindh Abadgar Ittehad, said the season should have commenced on 1 November, and he questioned why the government was not exporting sugar despite having around 1 million tonnes of surplus stocks in the country. The delay means farmers cannot sell their cane, and they cannot get the money they need for the next crop.
Wheat sowing delay is the other risk from the late crushing, and it worries farmers in Punjab as well, because the wheat sowing delay can push the whole wheat season late. In Lahore, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad central president Khalid Mahmood Khokhar said farmers were facing serious difficulties as sugar mills had yet to begin crushing operations. He said sugarcane growers needed to sell their produce to arrange finances and prepare land for the next crop, particularly wheat. Any further delay in crushing would disrupt the crop calendar and make it difficult for farmers to shift to wheat cultivation within the prescribed period.
The sugar mills Punjab farmers deal with are at the centre of the dispute, because farmers say mill owners use the same tactics at the start of every crushing season to deprive farmers of a fair price. The farmers alleged that mill owners delay the start of crushing to put pressure on growers, and they said the government had never consulted farmers on sugar exports. The mills have not yet given a public date for the start of crushing in the reports, and the government has not yet announced a price notification for the new season.
The demand for support price wheat Rs4500 is part of the same package, and it shows that farmers are worried about more than sugarcane. Wheat is the main food crop in Pakistan, and its price affects every family. The farmers said wheat prices had continued to rise, and they wanted a support price of Rs4500 per maund to give growers a fair return. The demand for wheat is linked to the sugarcane delay, because farmers need money from cane sales to buy seed and fertiliser for wheat.
There is a conflict in the reported prices that readers should know about. The Karachi press conference demanded Rs650 per maund for sugarcane, while a separate Business Recorder report from Lahore said the production cost of sugarcane was about Rs550 per maund, while the newly fixed price was Rs700 per maund. The two reports do not agree on whether a price has been fixed, or what that price is, so the draft does not present either figure as settled for the whole country. The farmers demand is Rs650, and that is the figure used in the title and focus of this article.
The government has also moved on sugar exports in the same week. A cabinet committee on the export of surplus sugar, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, cleared the way for surplus sugar exports, subject to safeguards to protect domestic supplies and prevent a rise in retail prices. The government did not specify the quantity available for export, the proposed export schedule, or the volume of reserves to be maintained. Farmers said timely exports could have helped manage surplus stocks without export rebates, and they criticised the delay in taking a decision.
In the coming days, the items to watch will be whether the government announces a sugarcane support price within the 10 day deadline, whether sugar mills start crushing, and whether farmers carry out their march towards Islamabad. The wheat sowing window is also closing, so a delay of even a few days can affect the next crop. For now, the Pakistan sugarcane price Rs650 demand is clear, with farmers asking for Rs650 per maund, Rs4500 for wheat, and a start to crushing that should have begun on 1 November.
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