KARACHI, Nov 2: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Jahangir Khan Tareen said on Thursday the average retail price of sugar had been set at Rs34 a kilo on the basis of support price of sugarcane in the country.
He was replying to a question of newsmen after attending the meeting of National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW) at the office of PMU Sindh.
He said the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) had conducted the exercise to ascertain the cost of production of sugar mills on the basis of existing sugarcane support price.
Minfal has reached this price after calculating the production cost keeping in view the sugarcane support price announced by Sindh government.
“The government feels that a relationship between the sugarcane support price and production cost of sugar is necessary to encourage growers as well as the millers,” he added.
Tareen pointed out that sugar mill owners had agreed to this price and all mills would start crushing operation in the next two to three days.
He said the prime minister had constituted a committee to monitor sugar production and its prices.
This committee had recommended after several meetings that the average retail price should be linked with sugarcane support price.
The farmers should be encouraged to grow sugarcane and millers should also earn profit, the minister observed.
Answering another question, he said the sugar mills were free to produce ethanol and OMCs were being encouraged to dispense blended fuel at their gas stations.—APP
