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Uncertainty over new sugarcane price in U.P.

LUCKNOW: Uncertainty prevails over the fixation of the State Advised Price (SAP) of sugarcane for the 2008-09 cane crushing season in Uttar Pradesh. The crushing season commenced from October 1 but the new cane price appeared nowhere in sight.

A meeting held on Friday under the chairmanship of the State Chief Secretary, Atul Kumar Gupta, for fixing the new cane procurement price ended in a stalemate with the representatives of the sugarcane growers and the mill owners failing to reach to nay consensus.

Informed sources said that the cane farmers stuck to their reported demand of Rs 160 per quintal of cane, which was rejected by the private mill owners. Representatives of the sugar mills said that they were not in a position to pay more than Rs. 112 for a quintal of sugarcane. Sources said the decline in the price of sugar in the international market was cited as the reason for their inability to give a higher sugarcane price. “ Since there was a vast difference between the price demanded by the growers’ representatives and the one quoted by the mills, it has been left to the Cane Price Fixation Committee to give its recommendations to the Government”, said an official of the Department of Sugarcane Development and Sugar Industry.

The Committee is likely to give its recommendations soon lest further delay forced the farmers to adopt the agitational path.

In the 2007- 08 sugar season, the State Advised price was fixed at Rs. 130 per quintal for the early maturing varieties of cane, Rs. 125 for the common varieties and Rs. 122.50 for the unapproved varieties. The Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) fixed by the Government of India stood at Rs. 81.18 per quintal. As compared to last year’s price, the cane growers were demanding a considerable hike over the 2007-08 price for the new cane crushing season.

Apart from the representatives of the farmers and mill owners, Friday’s meeting was attended by senior Government officials and officials of National Sugar Institute.

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