adminof raw sugar from a closing price of US$693 per tone for the 2011/12 marketing season.
Negotiations for this year’s producer price are underway with a deal expected to be sealed by early May.
Sugarcane is grown on a commercial scale in the southeastern parts of Zimbabwe which include Chisumbanje and Chiredzi.
Commercial Sugarcane Producers’ Association of Zimbabwe secretary- general Mr Darlington Chiwa told New Ziana that trial runs of mills had been completed.
“The season starts when mills are ready because after harvesting sugarcane should not last for 48 hours before being crushed otherwise it will deteriorate in quality,” he said.
“The process of coming up with the producer price is still underway. Currently we are making the final assessment of the crop size for the 2012/13 season which will then be used to calculate the price.”
Mr Chiwa said there was nothing unusual for harvesting to begin without the producer price.
“We operate on trust as farmers and the millers. When it comes to determining the price all the interested parties will be involved,” he said adding that the price of raw sugar was largely determined by market forces which were always there for everyone to see.
He said millers retain 26,5 percent of milled sugar as payment, a situation Mr Chiwa said needed to be reviewed downwards. — New Ziana.
Online Reporter