RAHIM YAR KHAN: Jaggery prices have fallen in Liaquatpur Town, a major market of raw sugar in south Punjab, due to healthy sugarcane crop.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, Liaqatpur Grain Market president Haji Muhammad Mukhtar says there are 210 shops in the market where 1,000 bags of jaggery (500 tonnes) are arriving daily compared to last year’s 300 tonnes.

He says Gur is being prepared in adjoining rural areas of Liaqatpur tehsil, including Allahabad, Ameenabad, Feroza, Taranda Muhammad Pannah, Junpur, Khanbela and Channi Goth.

He says: “There are five different qualities of Gur - zero quality, single special, special, double special and super special.”

He says last year the sugarcane crop was low and the rate of Gur was Rs3,000 to Rs3,800 per maund (40 kg) but this year (today) rate is Rs2,700 to Rs3,500 because of the healthy sugarcane crop.

He says the rate of shakkar (powdered Gur) is higher than Gur because its production is low. Shakkar is being sold at the rate of Rs3,600 to Rs3,700 per maund.

Mukhatar says four Gur markets - Liaqatpur, Yazman, Kot Addu and Peshawar - exist in Pakistan.

“Traders of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab are main purchasers but traders from Chaman and Waziristan also book their orders on cell

phones in large quantity to export the commodity to Afghanistan. The daily export of Gur to Afghanistan is 150 tonnes.”

Mukhtar says every Gur manufacturer receives immediate payment of his produce in cash and there is no cut in the weight of a bag.

He complains that the Liaqatpur Market Committee staffers don’t clean the roads and bays of the grain market which creates hygiene problems.

A progressive farmer of Liaqatpur, Arshaad Ahmed, says the government should announce manufacturing of jaggery as a small industry because it’s a good business for a sugarcane grower.

He says the sugarcane growers can avoid dependence of sugar mills by making jaggery. “There is a need for grading and packing of jaggery for better rates. Mostly Gur is being packed in used bags of fertilisers which is not only harmful for health but affects its quality.”

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2022