Sugar production might face a crisis next year due to adverse weather conditions. An official of Sugar Growers Association said: "The Meteorological department has predicted hot and humid weather in the coming months due to which extreme drought conditions are expected in the country's south, particularly in Sindh. Whole country could face 30 to 60 percent less monsoon this year and this will affect the next year's sugar production."
Besides, the farmers are dissatisfied as their payments were being delayed, he added. He said: "Around Rs 500 million are outstanding against sugar millers and, as such, farmers are compelled to stop next season's sugarcane farming. "Agriculture industry in Pakistan is likely to face unprecedented crisis due to hike in the prices of fertilizer and farmyard manure and unavailability of basic and natural resources to villagers and farmers," they complained, adding that millers did not pay the growers' amount in lump sum.
Meanwhile, sources in Pakistan Sugar Mill Association (PSMA) said that climatic conditions played an important role in sugar's production as the buffer production of 5.33 million tons, this year, was due to the favourable climatic conditions and high prices received by the growers, last year. "As a consequence of increased support price of sugarcane, we have surplus of over one million tons and without disposing it of it would not be impossible to make remaining payments of sugar growers," he added.
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