All sugar mills cannot pay farmers the same price, says Satish Jarkiholi

“All factories cannot pay the same price to sugarcane growers. The purchase prices of sugarcane depends on various factors like crop quality, sugar recovery percentage, prevailing market price of sugar and financial condition of the sugar mill,” Minister Satish Jarkiholi, who is also a sugar mill owner, said in Belagavi on Saturday.

He told reporters that the demand for uniform sugarcane prices across the state is natural and understandable.

“But it is impractical. A factory in better financial health can usually pay farmers higher prices compared to a factory that is suffering losses or heavily in debt. Climate factors also contribute to this. Farmers should understand that prices can vary from factory to factory and district to district,” he said.

“Our aim is to ensure that sugarcane growers get a fair price. We have no objection if sugar mills who have the financial capacity to pay a higher rate decide to do so. However, the financial situation of all sugar mills is not the same,” he said.

“Factories are offering different rates not only in Belagavi district but also in Kalaburagi and Haveri districts. But this is a natural phenomenon, especially during the dry season,” he said.

“Factories who are able to pay a higher rate should do so. We have no objection to this. We have held several rounds of meetings with farmers and factory owners to arrive at a base price of ₹3,600 per tonne and a profit sharing formula. This ensures additional payments to farmers if sugar prices rise. Based on this, factories have now announced their respective rates as other factories want to compete with optimal prices than some warehouses have,” he said.

“Yields are low this year due to the dry season. It has long been a practice in Maharashtra to offer higher prices than in Karnataka. Factories there have consistently paid better rates to farmers. Some farmers are comparing prices offered by factories in Karnataka with prices in Maharashtra,” he said.

“The main problem plaguing the sugar industry is the low price of sugar in the market. This is crippling the finances of the factories who are unable to pay better prices to the sugarcane growers. Things will improve if the center raises the minimum selling price of sugar. The Union government has formed a committee to look into the demand for raising the minimum selling price. The key point is for the government to review the final demands that farmers have to review and the committee should take a decision to the farmers have taken the decision, the decision is crucial,” he said.

Published – 15 Nov 2026 21:01 IST