LAHORE: Sugar millers have announced not to begin sugarcane crushing season this year until the stocks of the sweetener from last year are exhausted.

A general body meeting of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Centre) held under the chair of its chairman Asim Ghani Usman and attended by members from Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was unanimously decided in the meeting that the sugar mills would not start crushing season until the government allowed them to export the surplus sugar.

In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said the sugar mills had ample stocks till Jan 15, 2023 and the industry was left with only two options–to delay the National Food Security & Research Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema has, however, ruled out the export option fearing it may make the sweetener costlier in the local market.

“I believe that the sugar rate in the local market will go up within two months of the export permission as the country doesn’t hold as much sugar stock as is being claimed by the millers,” the minister said in a statement.

He says that the federal government will believe the figures of sugar stock available with the mills verified by the chief secretary of the relevant province.

Meanwhile, the PSMA chairman says they will announce their future line of action through a press conference on Friday (today).

Under the Punjab Sugar Factories (Control) Act 1950, the crushing season period should begin on Oct 1 in any year and end on June 30 the next year. The law ordains the occupier of a factory to start crushing of cane not later than a date specified by the government, which shall not be later than Nov 30 of every year.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2022