KARACHI, Nov 5: The sugarcane output from current crop has reached 47 million tons against a target of 43.72 million tonnes, and could touch 50 million tonnes by the end of the crop year, a senior agriculture official said on Monday.

“As of November 3, we have production (sugarcane) figures of exactly 47 million tons and we still have five more months to complete the crop year...the output can touch 50 million tonnes,” the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

He said heavy rains in late July and early August had improved the availability of irrigation water for water-intensive crops, including sugarcane. Pakistan’s 13-month-long sugarcane season starts in February and ends in March the following year.

The last crop year produced 46.33 million tons of cane.

The official said the sugarcane crop had also exceeded its targeted cultivation area of one million hectares after the rains convinced growers to initiate delayed sowing in regions especially hard-hit by drought and irrigation water shortages.

Sugarcane was sown on 1.032 million hectares (2.55 million acres) against 1.01 million hectares in the previous crop.

The sugarcane cultivation target for the current crop was initially put at one million hectares, but irrigation water shortages forced Pakistan to cut that figure to 961,000 hectares.

The country’s annual processed sugar demand is around 3.3 million tons and in previous years it has produced 2.7-2.8 million tons, with the demand gap bridged through imports.

Millers said on current production figures they expected to produce 3.3 million tons of refined sugar, while government officials predict 3.1 million tons.

With falling domestic sugar prices — currently quoted at Rs19.5/kg against Rs27/kg a year earlier — crushers say they are reluctant to buy more cane as they already hold significant stocks. New arrivals are due later this month.

“If prices continue to fall and millers continue to hold stocks from last year’s production, it would be next to impossible to start new crushing season due in the middle of November,” said a mill owner in the Punjab.

A senior official from the Ministry of Industries and Production in Islamabad told Reuters that low domestic prices had left sugar millers buried under stocks of around 500,000 tons, and the government was proposing a support mechanism to help avoid delays in the new crushing season.

“We understand the industry is in crisis...and we have asked provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab to buy 300,000 tons of sugar,” he said, adding the scheme would cost more than seven billion rupees.

Local mill owners complain cheap sugar imports from India for this stock-piling.

Pakistan imported over 600,000 tons of refined Indian sugar in 2000/01 to bridge an expected production shortfall to meet local demand.—Reuters