Bangladesh Sugarcane growers threaten to stop supply to mills
Sugarcane growers in Bangladesh have threatened to halt crop supply to mills unless the government raises the sugarcane price to Tk 150 per maund (40 kg), up from the current Tk 93. At a protest in Dhaka, farmers also demanded the repeal of the Molasses Control Act 1956 and payment of long-overdue fertilizer subsidies, citing rising production costs and low returns.
FE Report Sugarcane growers Sunday threatened to stop supply of the crop to sugar-mills as they gave the government an ultimatum to fix its price at Tk 150 per maund (40 kg). The national committee of Bangladesh Sugarcane Farmers’ Union formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club in the city and placed a 19-point demand. The key demand was to re-fix the price of sugarcane at Tk 150, which had earlier been set at Tk 93 by the government. The farmers also demanded withdrawal of the Molasses Control Act 1956, which imposed a ban on making molasses in the sugar-mill areas. Ansar Ali Dulal, Secretary of the national committee, said it was a “trick” on the part of the government to increase the price by Tk 10 to Tk 93. He said that in the past, farmers determined per maund at 37.5 kg, but now under the new price, per maund will be measured as 40 kg.
A farmer at Ishwardy in Pabna district Md Saiful Azam, a sugarcane supplier to Pabna Sugar Mill said, “Production cost has increased by manifold, but mills didn’t increase purchase rate compared to the production cost. He said, production cost at per bigha (33 decimals) is nearly Tk 22,000 to Tk 25,000 in Pabna-Nator area while the production is hardly 250 to 260 maunds. “It is now very tough to manage the investment, late alone profit,” he said. President of the National committee Abdus Salam said, “The mills get sugar 3.33 kg, molasses 1.5 kg, wastage 14 kg and bio-fertiliser 1.0 kg from per maund sugarcane– approximate price of these products is nearly Tk 300.” He said, “The decades-long ban on ‘sugarcane crushing’ is also depriving the farmers of their rights.
The ban was imposed to increase sugar production”. “But the sugarcane mills failed to boost production. In the meantime, consumer taste in rural areas turned to sugar from molasses, which is now forcing the country to import a huge amount of sugar,” he said. “We can get more than 5 kg molasses whose price is around Tk 250 from per maund crop. If the government would not fix the price for per maund sugarcane as Tk 150, we would stop supplying the crop from this month,” he added. The national committee also demanded giving them the promised subsidies of 2009-10 FY and 2010-11 FY in MOP and TSP fertiliser, which they didn’t get yet. They also placed a demand to facilitate the drought-prone sugar mill areas with initial irrigation to boost the production.
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Source : Financial Express
