Mexico City, Nov. 16 - Mexican sugar cane growers are withholding cane from the country's sugar mills in a dispute over prices as the 2007/2008 harvest gets under way, the National Cane Growers Union said Friday.
In a press release, cane growers' leader Carlos Blackaller was cited as saying mill owners are offering a price for cane 12% lower than in the 2006-2007 season, when growers were paid 3.41 pesos ($0.31) for a kilogram of sugar.
Mexico's 2007-2008 sugar harvest is just getting under way. The harvest usually runs to July.
The cane growers union said negotiations have been going on for several weeks between growers, mill owners and government officials, and that growers decided to withhold cane until an agreement is reached.
The union said 525,000 metric tons of cane have been delivered to 12 mills so far this season, which translates into production of 60,000 tons of sugar.
In the 2006-2007 harvest, Mexico's sugar production was slightly above 5.3 million metric tons, with more than 49 million metric tons of cane milled.
The cane growers union said it expects the 2007-2008 harvest to yield 5.5 million metric tons of sugar.