New hope for sugar consumers

According to a news report appearing on January 19, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) and Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) have agreed to link sugar price with cane recovery from the next crushing season.
Quoting senior officials, the report said that representatives from federal and provincial governments discussed the problem faced by the industry and agreed to formulate a long-term strategy in consultation with all stakeholders.
It recalled that earlier on January 12, in a meeting of a PSMA delegation with Secretary Minfal, Muhammad Ismail Qureshi, agreement was reached on setting up a technical committee, with representation of both the millers and the growers. Understandably, the committee was tasked to address the predicament of both, hopefully by working out the modalities of linking sugar prices with cane recovery.
At the same time, the big guns of the industry were asked to stop the ongoing blame game, and to concentrate, instead, on devising an effective strategy to ensure satisfaction of both stakeholders. While dispelling the impression of Minfal being against the industry, it hinted at the ministry's concern on why the cane growers were switching to other crops, thereby creating cane shortage for millers.
As for the premium issue, progress on this is yet to be made. For, although the Sindh Cane Commissioner had confirmed submission of a summary to his Chief Minister's Secretariat for its waiver, it has stayed there, as the growers had, meanwhile, moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
As such, it should stand to reason that subsequent to a decision of the court in the matter, the conflict over premium could stand resolved, given the will of the contenders. All this put together will make it appear that time has come closer to the resolution of many a dispute hampering purposeful growth of the sugar economy, to the satisfaction of all its stakeholders. But as things stand now, this cannot be said for sure.
For, as one can recall, many and varied having been the causes of overall predicament of the sugar economy; resolution of one issue has yielded place to another, thereby offering little respite to the end user - the consumer - around whose satisfaction is believed to revolve all economic activity.
Ready reference, in this regard, may be made to the controversy over regulatory duty on Gur, which has been a non-issue. Yet no notification has been issued thus far. But the fact remains that with the passage of time, Gur has come to figure among consumer needs on a widening scale, more so for the poorer among them.
It may be a non-issue for the government and for the big wigs among farmers and millers. But for consumers, for understandable reason, it is certainly an issue worth consideration. It is, however, just another matter that parties to all the sugar-related disputes, including the growers, the millers and the government, have continued to build their case, among other things, on the populist slogans of consumer relief.
But the dismal fact remains that the resolution of the problems of the sugar economy has seldom brought the needed relief to the consumers, as their plight has virtually remained unchanged. Reference, in this regard, may be made to a news item appearing only the other day. According to it, the PSMA and the government had agreed to maintain the price of sugar at Rs 31 per kg, in order to ensure payment to the growers, and to remove reservations of the sugar mills.
At a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Commissioner of Agriculture Development, Qadir Buksh Baloch, and attended by Cane Commissioners of Punjab, NWFP, and Sindh, along with the chairman of PSMA (Punjab Zone), besides representatives of the departments concerned, the representatives of the PSMA had urged the government to link sugarcane price, with sugar to resolve the crisis for all times to come.
Again, with the recommendation to fix sugarcane price at Rs 76 per 40 kg, the PSMA was reported to have expressed its willingness to pay Rs 100 per 40 kg for sugarcane purchased from the growers, if the government linked it with the price of sugar. While hoping that the efforts now being made would place sugar industry on track, it is also hoped that this would benefit the consumers, too.