SUGAR crisis is once again in the media for multiple reasons. Such crises have become rather routine since the scandal that had surfaced in 2019-20. The commodity is allowed to be exported on the pretext of surplus production, but later in the year sugar has to be imported, exposing the myth of surplus.

Another grave issue, as indicated by the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25, is the difference between sugarcane cultivation area and total production. While the former has increased by 1.1 per cent, the later has declined by 3.38pc.

Pakistan is among the top 10 countries in terms of cultivated area, 14th when it comes to production, and at the bottom with respect to per-unit output. Recovery of fructose on average is 10pc. The per capita consumption of sugar in Pakistan is 25-28kg per annum, including its commercial use in soft drinks, sweets and bakery items.

The critical question that had emerged during the 2019-20 crisis related to the need for import even after surplus sticks. An inquiry team of the Federal Investi- gation Agency (FIA) observed in its 2020 report that the government was solely dependent on the information provided by the sugar mills. This included data about the pricing of sugarcane, the amount of cane crushed, the recovery ratio, the sugar produced, sold, lifted and pledged.

The sugar industry had crippled the government, and minted money both while exporting and importing the commodity. The FIA report noted that in both phases, the prices had remained under the total control of the Sugar Mills Association.

The end consumer was at the mercy of sugar tycoons and the middlemen operating between the mills and the users. It is fair to say that the texture of the crisis has remained the same regardless of who happens to be in power at any given time.

Sugarcane is a high delta and long duration crop, and can be replaced by sugar beet, which consumes less water and has a short duration. Sugar beet produces 25-30pc of sweetener worldwide, and is being cultivated in different parts of the world. But sugar tycoons in Pakistan are not ready to make a meagre investment in their mills to install a small unit to crush sugar beet.

The sugar beet is not a new crop for Pakistani farmers; it was cultivated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and sugar was produced routinely from 1960s to 1980s. In the recent past, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture conducted successful trials for beet cultivation in Punjab and Sindh. It is the sugar industry that is hindering the process, standing in the way of sugar beet cultivation.

If this critical shift is made, the area and irrigation water saved can be used for raising other crops, like sunflower and canola, which will cut down Pakistan’s current import of edible oils.

For achieving this goal, the government has to sit with the country’s sugar barons to somehow convince them of the primacy of the national interest over personal gains.

Ghulam Idris Khan
Ex-Managing Director, Pakistan Oilseed Development Board
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2025