Lahore: Sugar mills have started exploiting sugarcane farmers, politically influential sugar barons have created a shortage despite the surplus stock of sugar in the country.
Meanwhile, due to the IMF conditions, the government did not announce the support price for sugarcane, due to which the price of sugarcane was initially Rs 350 per maund, which has increased to only Rs 400 to 450.
Punjab sugar mill officials said that due to low sugarcane production in Sindh, the price of sugarcane is high in Sindh, because Sindh sugar mills are purchasing from Punjab to meet the demand, however, the delay in payments by sugar mills has worried the farmers, from which the middleman is taking advantage.
Farooq Aziz, a farmer from South Punjab, said that it is very difficult for us to get a better price. We go through so much pain to produce our crops, but the mill owners exploit us.
On the other hand, farmers who preserve their crops for a long time are also unhappy with the attitude of the mill owners. Farmers who cannot preserve their crops for a long time hand over their crops to middlemen and become victims of exploitation by the middlemen.
According to official data, the production of sugar in the current season is estimated to be 6.8 million tons, which is 3 percent more than the previous season. Despite this, the farmers’ backs have been broken. Due to expensive fertilizers and seeds, farmers are unable to meet their expenses and are sinking into a swamp of debt.
Raja Tariq, a middleman, said that we invest in transport, bribe the nagas, take all kinds of risks during the transportation of crops, therefore, our profit is justified.
