Allow exports or buy excess sugar: PSMA

Urges government to purchase excess commodity at Rs115 per kg

LAHORE:

Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) Punjab Zone has said that in case the government does not allow the sugar industry to export one million tonnes of surplus sugar, then it should purchase the excess sugar at the rate of Rs115 per kg in order to steer the sugar industry out of its crisis – enabling sugar mills to give timely payments to the growers.

In a statement made on Wednesday, a PSMA spokesman said that the cost of production of sugar contains multifarious factors, including the hike in the rate of chemicals used in the sugar-making process, increase in the rate of the banks’ mark-up from 18 to 20% and the government’s decision to jack the sugarcane support price to Rs300 per 40-kg.

“It is becoming nearly impossible for the sugar mills to pay the growers,” he said adding that the investors, who have invested billions of rupees in each sugar mill, are incurring huge losses instead of gaining profits due to the current situation.

“The government should look into this matter and immediately take remedial measures, otherwise the sugar industry has left with no other option, but to shut down the mills,” he lamented.