Three sugar mills in Punjab have started sugarcane crushing while the rest of them will hopefully be operational by November 25, and thus a fresh supply of sugar would arrive in the market by end of this week or early in the next week. It may be mentioned that boilers of all the 45 sugar mills have already been fired and thus are ready to start crushing as soon as they receive sugarcane.
Sources in the office of Punjab Food Department, told Business Recorder here on Monday that boilers fired by the mills and three mills have started crushing. They said that the delay in the crushing season was due to weeklong Eid holidays and non-availability of labour.
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) Chairman Javed Kiani confirmed that the all the mills in Punjab would start crushing by November 25 and three mills have already started working, but the mills were facing hardships in getting sugarcane in the required quantity due to poor harvesting. He claimed that harvesting did not start due to Eid.
Regarding the price of sugarcane, he said mills were getting sugarcane at Rs 150 per maund instead of government-announced support price of Rs 125 per maund. However, he said, there would be no impact on the sugar prices of this higher rates and a fresh stock of sugar would be available in the market by the end of current week or early next week. Kiani urged the government to allow the market mechanism to determine the price of sugar rather than the government fixing it.
Meanwhile, sources in the food department Punjab said that about 13,000 tons of sugar had been offloaded in the markets of the province. They said the provincial government had 100,000 metric tons from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) while 50,000 metric tons would be available as backup to maintain the prices of the commodity and ensure its easy availability to the consumers in the market. "The provincial government transported sugar from Karachi in three special trains while other means are also being used to meet the situation on emergency basis," he added.
However, Lahore Sugar Dealers Association President Muhammad Asghar Butt while talking to this scribe said the supply of sugar was once again less than the requirement in the wholesale market on Monday. He said he got only 16 bags of 50 kilograms on Monday while his requirement was 2000 bags of the same quantity. He also complained of less weight of these bags, which were provided to him. He alleged that about 6 kilograms of sugar was less than the prescribed weight in these bags.
The City District claimed that the administration had taken all the necessary steps to provide sugar at the prescribed rate of Rs 72 per kilogram to the consumers. They said the price control magistrates were deputed by the city administration, who even during the Eid holidays visited various markets and bazaars to ensure sale of sugar and other commodities at the controlled rate. The city government cancelled holidays of all the officers and employees and no price magistrate was allowed to leave the station during these dates, it added.
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