Mill operators guarantee sugar industry in emergency

LAHORE:Pakistan Sugar Factories Affiliation Punjab (Zone) representative asserted that the sugar business has been under serious emergency for past numerous years and sugar producers are continually constrained to lead business in a climate uncommon in some other agro-based industry where the base fixed cost of not entirely settled by commonplace state run administrations while the plants are compelled to offer sugar at curbed rates to work with the buyers at an ex still up in the air by market influences.

In an explanation gave her Thursday, he said, then again, the factories are constrained to sell sugar beneath its creation expenses to guarantee ideal installments to producers and satisfy its functioning capital necessities.

Current sugar prices have been negatively impacted by last season’s carryover stocks due to minimal exports against surplus of one million metric tonnes valuing one billion dollars and ‘unlawful’ restrictions imposed on interprovincial movement of sugar to deficit provinces, he said. Any intervention or support by the government to permit exports or purchase of surplus sugar stocks by Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), to be kept as strategic reserves, is not forthcoming despite repeated requests.

Sugarcane is a major raw material and cost component (about 80%) of sugar production. For crushing season 2023-24, its minimum support price fixed by the provincial government has an increase of 33 percent in Punjab and 41 percent in Sindh. Sugar mills are already facing liquidity crunch due to squeeze on credit lines and increase in mark-up rates, wages, prices of imported chemicals, transportation costs and other high inflationary trends in last two years. Cost of production of sugar has increased manifold while currently the ex-mill price of sugar has gone down much below its cost of production, he claimed.

Mill operators guarantee sugar industry in emergency