HYDERABAD: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) on Thursday objected to the recent decision to approve 300,000 tonnes sugar exports, saying a delay in the decision has rendered rebates and subsidies on the commodity necessary.

In a letter to the prime minister, SAB President Abdul Majeed Nizamani expressed grave concern over sugar industry’s deteriorating situation and delayed payments to cane growers. Without rebate on sugar, the commodity would not be exported, he said.

The SAB chief said that despite record production of sugar in 2016-17, the government delayed its decision over apprehensions that the commodity’s exports might lead to an increase in its domestic prices.

There is 35 million tonnes surplus sugar in the international market which witnessed a decline in prices to $395 per tonne from $555 per tonne, he noted.

Cane growers are ultimate sufferers of the mismanagement in the sugar sector, he said.

There is a huge amount of outstanding sugarcane payments while next year a bumper crop is likely, he noted. The permission to export 0.3m tonnes of sugar would not be very helpful, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017