It should be evident to everyone that the sugar industries in Pakistan are deceiving the public for earning money
PESHAWAR: Sugarcane crops use a lot of water and require special costly fertiliser to grow. Sugarcane plants grow razor-sharp leaves and require much effort from farmers to cut them down. Loading and transportation is also a hassle. The sugar mill owners make the trucks wait outside their mills for many days to help reduce the water content and the weight of the sugarcane, while the farmer have to pay the truck rent charges for all these days.
The industrial average sucrose content for sugarcane is above 14% but sugar mill owners claim that in Pakistan it is only 8%. Since most mill owners distribute sugarcane seeds to the farmers on loan, the cane commissioner does not check the sucrose content and there is no data available. Due to this reason the sugar mills not only force the government to reduce the sugarcane base price, but also claim lower sugar production and thus pay lower taxes while claiming higher prices.
The farmers are not paid on time or at all. But even with all these hassles they plant sugarcane every year because sugarcane has a fixed support price and they had gotten the seeds on loan. Similarly with over 60 sugar mills, Pakistani businesses still pay a higher price compared to international sugar and get a much lower quality product. It should be evident to everyone that the sugar industries in Pakistan are deceiving the public for earning money. The cane commission and government should take samples and check sucrose content to gather relevant data and end the fixed support price for sugarcane.
Shahryar Khan Baseer
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2020.
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