Sugarcane producers from Morang and Sunsari districts have barred Eastern Sugar Mill from supplying sugar to the market for the past week after the mill failed to pay them for the raw material. The sugar mill has yet to settle Rs180 million in last year’s payments to the farmers. This year, the mill owes more than Rs250 million to the farmers.

“We are yet to receive last year’s payment,” said Ballav Shrestha, member of Sunsari-Morang Sugarcane Producers Association. “This year, the mill has crushed 500,000 quintals of sugarcane, but it has not released a single penny. So we were forced to bar the mill from supplying sugar to the market.”

The mill crushes 18,000 quintals of sugarcane daily. 

The farmers said the mill has also not offered the price fixed by the government. The government has fixed sugarcane price at Rs531.30 per quintal for this year. However, the mill has been offering only Rs517 per quintal.

Last year, the mill had crushed 1.34 million quintals of sugarcane, and produced 120,000 quintals of sugar. Shrestha said the mill will get only 750,000 quintals of sugarcane this year due to a sharp drop in production.

Many farmers have switched to other crops due to low floor prices and delayed payments by sugar mills. The mill used to crush 2.80 million quintals of sugarcane in previous years.

Farmers said it had become a tradition for them to deliver their harvests to the mills and get paid only the next year.