UP sugar mills to start crushing on schedule

Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh today agreed to start cane crushing on schedule after a meeting with the state government, UP Sugar Mills Association Chairman C B Patodia said.

Worried over delay in sugarcane crushing by mills in Uttar Pradesh and the consequent problems faced by farmers, state’s minister for cane development and sugar industry, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, had today called a meeting of sugar millers in the state.Mills in the state had earlier refused to start crushing unless the government reviewed the cane price or gave the mills subsidy, saying that the state advised price (SAP) would make sugar output unviable.

Uttar Pradesh government has set the SAP for cane at Rs 140 a quintal for the new sugar season that started October 1, up from Rs 125 last year, and way above the central government’s SMP of Rs 81.18.

The industry has filed a writ petition in Allahabad HC challenging the cane price, and the next hearing in the case has been scheduled for November 18. The state government was concerned as mills’ decision to delay crushing would have put off wheat sowing in the largest wheat producing state.