Maharashtra mills begin crushing

Following the settlement between sugarcane growers and crushers on the cane pricing issue in Kolhapur district, the Maharashtra-wide stir by growers has started weakening and 104 sugar factories in the state started production in full swing, a senior industry official said on Monday.

"Over 250,000 tonne sugar has already been produced as of Sunday by crushing 2.5 million tonne sugar cane," said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director, Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd.

There are 154 cooperative sugar factories in the state at present, including 19 in Kolhapur district.

On Saturday, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, a splinter group of Sharad Joshi-led Shetkari Sanghatana, had agreed to accept the price of Rs 1,280 per tonne for their member farmers.

The first instalment of Rs 980 per tonne of sugarcane will be paid in two weeks and the balance Rs 380 will be paid after six weeks, after getting the approval of Sugar Commissioner. This has resolved the farmers' stir in Kolhapur district. However, Shetkari Sanghatana, which has good support outside Kolhapur district, has still stuck to its demand for Rs 2,200 per tonne of sugarcane.

Realising that Shetkari Sanghatana's demand is unrealistic, farmers outside Kolhapur district have also started delivering sugarcane to their respective factories, an official of Kolhapur-based sugar factory said.

In 2005-06 (Oct-Sep) farmers were paid between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500 per tonne of sugar cane, depending on the quality.

"In Kolhapur, 16 out of 19 factories are about to commence production any time from now, while 2 units"�one each taken on lease by Shree Renuka Sugar and Somaiya Sugar"�have rejected the settlement," said Vijay Avtade, managing director, Chhatrapati Shahu Cooperative Sugar Mills.

Shree Renuka Sugar and Somaiya Sugar are not ready to pay more than Rs 1,000 per tonne of sugarcane, the rate they are paying in neighbouring Karnataka. Instead, they may keep their factories shut for the season, Avtade said.

Maharashtra had a bumper 62-65 million tonne sugarcane crop this season (Oct-Sep) and it is expected to report record sugar production of more than 7 million tonne.

According to Naiknavare, most sugar factories will start operations very soon and the loss in recovery rate will be made up subsequently during the season.