Bitterness over sugar

The massive arrears that mills owe sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh and the prospects of a further increase in state-advised support prices in an election year has caused some unexpected bitterness within the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). The association recently held a news conference in Lucknow to communicate its anxieties on these issues. As ISMA Director General Abinash Verma briefed the media on the mills' paying capacity in the 2013-14 crushing season, an industry representative in the audience interjected and questioned his stand. Verma initially tried to deter him by promising that the issue would be discussed internally but when the elderly dissenter persisted, Verma tersely told him that he was there to address the media and not him alone.