ISLAMABAD: The Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) has turned down the request for additional exports and warned that the export permits of mills that do not pay farmers’ dues would be revoked.

The decision was made during a board meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Industries and Produc­tion Rana Tanveer Hussain. The meeting was attended by Comme­rce Minister Jam Kamal Khan and representatives from the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA).

The board was informed that the sugarcane production for 2024-25 would be 85.46 million tonnes.

It was decided that cane crushing would begin on Nov 21, and action would be taken against mills that fail to start crushing by this date. The PSMA will provide the cane cru­­shing schedule and the list of mills that do not comply with the directions for timely starting operations.

The meeting was also informed that the sugar stocks would be around 1.08 million tonnes by Nov 21, including the export quota not utilised by the industry.

The board expressed satisfaction with the current sugar prices in the local market.

Mr Tanveer said the prices were falling as the stockists and wholesalers were offloading the holdings ahead of new arrivals.

He made it clear that the mills must clear payments to cane growers before the start of the crushing season; if they failed, their export licences would be revoked.

The board meeting turned down the PSMA request for permission to export an additional 500,000 tonnes of sugar, noting that it cannot grant further permission as the export quota approved earlier has yet not been fully utilised.

The official data showed that the sugar sector has yet to export around 604,000 tonnes out of the allowed quantity of 790,000 tonnes.

According to the official data, the leftover stocks, excluding exportable stocks, would be 353,000 tonnes by Dec 1. However, the sugar industry said the opening balance on Dec 1 would be 554,959 tonnes as fresh stocks would be arriving in the market by that time.

The PSMA representatives said that in the short term, allowing exports was essential for the industry to generate an export surplus for the next season.

They demanded the government to deregulate the sugar industry completely by ‘obliterating’ the Sugarcane Act and removing sugar from the list of essential commodities, making it operate on a free market concept.

However, the board did not decide in this regard.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2024