March 06, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 16, 1428

KARACHI, March 5: The country earned over $112 million on export of around 190,585 tons of alcohol during 2006-07. The value-addition in molasses through its conversion into alcohol has enabled exporters to earn eight to ten times more foreign exchange.

The different grades of alcohol are being produced from molasses with a ratio of 1:5 meaning one ton of alcohol is being produced out of five tons of molasses. Presently, around 16 distilleries are operating in the country with a 60 per cent capacity of converting on average 1.8 million tons of molasses.

According to the details available, the country exported around 167,610 tons of alcohol during 2006 and about 22,975 tons during first two months of this year, thereby brining the total to around 190,585 tons. The average price fetched by exporters for different grades of alcohol ranged between $560 to $680 per ton.

As a result the country earned around $100.6 million on export of 167,610 tons in 2006 and $11.5 million on export of 22,975 tons in Jan- Feb this year

With the start of the sugarcane crushing season each year the country had been exporting millions of tons of molasses at a throw away price to European countries and Japan. However, for the last couple of years it is being converted into three grades of alcohol i.e. fuel or anhydrous, neutral or extra-neutral (ENA) and industrial or rectified ethanol (REN).

The fuel grade alcohol fetches highest price as it is being growingly used for mixing up to 10 per cent in petroleum products the world over to ease the pressure of increasing oil prices. The fuel grade alcohol needs 99.80 per cent purity on conversion from molasses while neutral (ENA) is purified up to 96.20 per cent and is used by pharmaceutical industry and in the making of wine. The industrial grade, also known REN, requires 94 per cent purification and is used by the industry.

Chairman Terminals Association of Pakistan (TAP) Mohammad Qasim told Dawn that the country would easily manage to export a little over two million tons of alcohol during current 2006-07 sugarcane crushing season on getting around 1.8 to 2 million tons of molasses. This would mean that a balance of around 0.5 to 0.6 million tons of molasses would be exported.

He said that after recent rains export of both molasses and alcohol slowed downing as crushing was affected on slow arrival of cane from the fields. However, he hoped the momentum will be regained soon as the cane harvest is better than last year.

Mr Qasim appreciated the Karachi Port for providing excellent facilities at the bulk oil piers for export of these two value-added commodities — alcohol and molasses. He said that in coming years export of alcohol would rise further as more distilleries were coming up, which will enable the country to convert entire molasses production into alcohol.

He suggested that legislation should be introduced for use of fuel grade alcohol in the country to give some relief to the common man by using it mostly in public transport system.

Responding to a question the TAP chief said that the country would produce sufficient sugar this season to meet the domestic demand particularly when sizable stocks are also lying with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP). He further said that India had also good sugarcane harvest and would have surplus sugar this year.

Referring to world sugar market Mohammad Qasim said that the prices had crashed because almost all the sugar producing countries have good cane harvest and there is going to be surplus sugar available. He said that about a fortnight ago sugar was being quoted at around $330 per ton (fob) against $515 per ton about 15 months back.