March 20, 2002	Wednesday	Muharram 5, 1423

KARACHI, March 19: Around 600,000 tons of molasses export during current sugarcane crushing season has fetched around $30 million at an average price of $50 per ton, exporters said.

The country is expected to produce around 1.5 million tons molasses during current sugarcane crushing season, which would earn around $75 million.

The bulk of molasses quantity is exported to European countries where it is processed and up-graded to make it usable for industrial purposes, including alcohol and in some edible products.

Due to poor harvest of sugarcane crop the country for the last two consecutive years has produced around 1.5 million tons as against 2 to 2.2 million tons it used to produce.

The sugar mills generally do not have proper storage system of molasses and normally they fill open pits in the ground which are exposed to atmospheric changes as well as dirt.

Consequently, most of the leading exporters have already purchased huge quantity of molasses, which is reported to be in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 tons and have stored it in tanks at Keamari.

With crushing season almost over in the province of Sindh the flow of molasses is reported to have declined considerably. However, in Punjab where crop size is 20 to 25 per cent larger than Sindh and crushing season also starts late most of sugar mills are still operating.

Exporters expect that around 0.5 million tons of molasses was still lying with sugar mills in Punjab and Sindh but with weekly export of around 50,000 tons they expect to handle the entire exportable quantity within next three to four months.

According to sugar technologists the absence of downstream industries in sugar sector is one of the main factors of its being inefficient and cost ineffective.

In countries like Brazil the sugar industry is involved in production of other industrial as well as edible products which they make out of molasses, but in Pakistan it is being exported at a throw away prices.

These experts suggest that the government should make it mandatory for each sugar unit to set up downstream industries which will not only make sugar production cheaper but will also serve the policy of value addition.

Nowhere in the world the crushing of sugarcane is taken as an industrial activity, it is rather the high-tech activity of the downstream industry which has attained importance, they added.