LAHORE, Jan 16: A lacklustre cane crushing season is under way in Punjab as only 10 out of 38 sugar mills have started actual crushing. According to Zaka Ashraf of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), all the 38 mills had fired their boilers on Jan 12 and started purchasing sugarcane. Now, all those mills which had bought cane as per their capacity have started crushing.

Others are in the process of purchasing and waiting for a sufficient procurement to start crushing.

He claimed that the cane price was around Rs60 per maund. He said though sugar recovery improved with the delay in crushing season, yet the recent cold waves had affected the sugarcane and the recovery of sugar might drop again. — Staff Reporter