10/06/2008 (The Post, Pakistan), Multan - All Pakistan Solvent Extractors Association (APSEA) has appealed to federal government and the governor State Bank to issue instructions to all the banks and financial institutions for providing finances to solvent plant owners for the procurement of oil-bearing seeds like sun-flower.

Otherwise there would be severe crisis of edible oil in the country and we would have to spend billions of rupees to import palm oil and other edible oils. Presiding over an emergency meeting of APSEA, its chairman Nawab Shehzad Ali Khan said that After the refusal of banks for providing finances, we are facing hardships in procurement of sun-flower produce which might be destroyed due to forthcoming rains if we could not preserve it immediately," He further said that we had fixed the support price of sun-flower at Rs.1600 per 40 kg in our April 28th convention but we are purchasing the sunflower seed at Rs.1700 to 1800 per 40 kg as procurement was being made at market rates to facilitate the growers.

He said: "We would not import sun-flower seed in the larger interest of local growers and to save the maximum foreign exchange". He said extractors strictly adhered to the decisions of the association to attract the growers to shift their services toward sun-flower and other oilseed produces. He said that sunflower was cultivated on 1.35 million acres of land, which is record in country's history. He said that solvent plant owners had constituted a committee to resolve the dispute and for consultation of different issues. This committee, he said, would help in safeguarding the rights of the growers as well as solvent plant owners.

He said that the government should have to fix the minimum price of Sun flower, Canola, rapeseed and "sirson" but APSEA, on its own, had fixed the support price of sun-flower to protect the interests of the farmers.

However fluctuation of prices would apply in the market. Nawab Shehzad said that association has decided to sell out imported Sun-flower seed in international market to maintain the prices in Pakistan. He said that Solvent plant would purchase the sunflower of up to 8 per cent moisture and 2 per cent dust. He appealed to the farmers to adopt the international standards and modern technology to make their space in local market on permanent basis. He assured that solvent plants would purchase even a single seed of sunflower and other oil-seeds and no deduction would be made.

He asked the farmers not to sell-out adulterated sunflower, which destroy their machinery and equipments badly. He said that scraps of shoes, leather, stones, bricks and clay were found in the sunflower in past which had disheartened the solvent plant extractors.