In 1947 when this country came into being there were only two small units making sugar with annual capacity of 1500 tons of sugar.Today, there are 84 units producing sugar, 43 units in Punjab, 33 in Sindh, and 8 in NWFP.Total installed capacity is of over million tons of refined sugar of a quality of international repute.
This is in no way a small achievement, a continuous struggle by all stakeholders has made it possible.Industrialists, who invested billion of rupees, growers who brought required area under cane cultivation and government, which provided incentives for development of industry.Till 1984 there was control over distribution of sugar.
Cane price was fixed by government and sugar price was determined on the basis of cost of production determined each year through complete study and analysis by APCOM, a department Government of Pakistan.In addition, other incentives included recovery of excise duty on fixed capacities, exemption of duty on additional production of average of two or three years production.Payment of 70% advance of weekly produced sugar.
These all incentives helped industry to come to the stage when country is not only self sufficient in its requirement of this commodity of daily use but also in a position to export its surplus production at times and earning most needed foreign exchange.Molasses, a byproduct of sugar, is being used to produce ethyl alcohol.For the purpose, 18 distilleries are working in the country with an annual production capacity of about 6 lac tans.
Almost 90% of production is exported.This is also a gift of sugar industry. Production of sugar in country depends mainly on size of cane crop, which depends mainly on climatic conditions, availability of water and fertiliser. There could be various measures which can maximise the production and surplus sugar can be exported to earn foreign exchange.
In case of higher production additional molasses can be obtained and can be utilised to increase production of ethyl alcohol, which can earn more foreign exchange. Some of the problems and suggestions to improve production can be summarised as under.
1.Normal area under cane cultivation is one million hectares.Average yield per hectare is 49 tons per hectare.Yield per hectare in Pakistan is one of the lowest in world.By research and development activities and use of up to date agricultural practices, it can be improved by 50% and the total cane available for crushing will increase by 50% with no increase in area under cane cultivation.
2.Similarly, recovery percent of sugar from cane is on a lower side as compared to International standard. Average recovery percentage in Pakistan is 8.75 % as compared to international standard of over 10.50%.By improving seed quality and use of higher recovery cane production can be further increased.
3.Price payable to growers is fixed by government at uniform rate for growers without taking into consideration quality of cane.If price is fixed and paid with linkage to quality, grower will get incentives to produce quality cane so that he can get better return of his produce.
4.Co-generation capability of sugar industry be explored and industry friendly policy be adopted so that country can overcome to some extent the power crisis.Sugar industry has a capability of generating 1500-1700 MW of electricity with further investment and improvement.
5.This is the period of free economy, and business is to be run on commercial basis.Undue intervention by government machineries must be avoided and industry be allowed to act freely. It is hoped that with little efforts, much more can be achieved and Pakistan can become an exporter of sugar rather than importing sugar every now and then.
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