Kolhapur: The West India Sugar Mills Association, a forum of 122 private sugar mills from Maharashtra, has now warned the Centre that it would tell members to delay the cane crushing season if the minimum support price for sugar and ethanol procurement prices are not hiked.
Recently, a meeting of a group of ministers (GoM) led by union minister of cooperation Amit Shah had decided not to hike MSP of sugar, citing its high price in the retail market – Rs42-43 per kg. MSP is the price at which mills sell the sugar to wholesalers. It is also known as the ‘factory gate price’.
But WISMA has now called on govt to bring in the hike, before the crushing season starts. The group said it has written letters to the Centre on the matter.
WISMA’s president BB Thombare said: “Centre hiked the fair and remunerative price (FRP) to be paid to the farmers five times, but has never hiked sugar MSP in the last five years and ethanol procurement prices in the last two years. Millers are mandated to pay FRP to farmers within 15 days of crushing the cane. If not, chairperson and MD of the mill will face criminal action. So it is better not to start the crushing. We will ask our member factories not to start harvesting and crushing until the Centre meets our demands.”
The state govt had allowed mills to begin crushing from Nov 15. The Centre had also fixed the FRP for sugarcane in March, well ahead of the normal date of September, due to the Lok Sabha election. “The FRP then increased to Rs3,400 per ton. Factories have to spend Rs 4,200 per ton. We are not demanding gains in profit but a remuneration for the losses we are facing,” Thombare said.
WISMA wants ethanol price, for the ethanol generated from sugarcane syrup, to be set at Rs 73 per litre, a hike of Rs5 per litre.
Sugarcane industries with distilleries contribute nearly 70% of India’s ethanol production, and if the mills stop producing ethanol, the country’s ethanol-blending programme (mixing of ethanol in petrol to bring down foreign currency deficit) may come to a standstill, Thombare said.
