Muzaffarnagar’s Gur industry recovers post-riot

NEW DELHI: Cane harvest has slowed down in and around Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh due to labour crunch following clashes and unrest. Prices of gur, the city’s prime industry, were feared to crash but they are stable now and are trading close to previous year’s levels. Prices of sugar traded in the area are yet to see a major correction although production is in full swing. “We need a huge labour force to harvest cane during this time of the year. While a majority of farmers are Hindus, the labour class is mostly of Muslim people who have either fled or have refused to work for Hindu farmers ,” said one of the gur traders based in the Shamli region. There are 122 sugar mills in western UP, 11 of them in and around this district.

Around 4,000 cottage units are involved in gur production, which accounts for 20% of the country’s produce. Around 35% of cane harvest of the region goes into gur production. “It is difficult to trace the labour force, comprising Muslim and low-caste Hindus especially from Shamli, and convince them to work for the gur units,” said a trader requesting anonymity. An unofficial industry estimate said that around 40,000 residents of Muzaffarnagar district have fled after riots. Gur is produced in the October-May season and India produces 90 lakh tonne of gur every year. Of this, the share of UP is 55 lakh tonne, to which Muzaffarnagar contributes 20 lakh tonne.

“Sugar mills, however, are witnessing no such problem as they are able to get labourers from other areas to harvest and transport cane,” said a sugar industry executive. He said that with the government announcing a bailout package for the sugar industry, millers are in a hurry to sell the past year's surplus stock and supply fresh sugar to the market as soon as possible. The prevailing price of sugar in the Muzaffarnagar market is . 32-32 .90 per kg. The price of gur is hovering around . 1,044 per 40 kg.