The issue of sugar smuggling to Afghanistan was discussed just one month ago at a meeting of Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) presided over by Minister of Industries, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, reveal official documents available with Business Recorder as well as the Frontier government.
The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was represented by Saifullah Khan from the Agriculture Department and Muhammad Yousaf from the Food Department. "The meeting had decided that the Frontier Constabulary (FC) be associated to check smuggling of sugar in the garb of Gur," the documents disclosed.
Chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), Iskandar Khan, who is presently on a foreign tour, urged the government to levy export duty on Gur which was being exported and smuggled to Central Asian countries at Rs 80-90/kg. He claimed as the Gur season had ended sugar was being exported duty free under the garb of Gur.
However, the representative of the Sarhad Chamber, Abdul Rahim Khan, vociferously opposed all the proposals limiting the movement of Gur.
The documents further made known that Secretary Industries, Shahab Khawaja, had noted that the price of sugar in the market was on the rise, one of the foremost concerns of the Ministry of Industries today.
He cited various reasons for the rising sugar prices from the cost of production in terms of higher price of sugarcane to inadequate sugar supplies being released in the market by mills.
He solicited participants'' views on the adequacy of ''existing stocks'' to last till the next season; possibility of further rise in sugar prices in the coming months especially in the holy month of Ramazan; the area under sugarcane cultivation in 2009-10; prospects for next season''s crop size, expected yield and sugar imports and timing of white sugar to replenish stocks in the current season and of raw sugar to meet anticipated shortages in the next season.
According to sources, Sugarcane Commissioner, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa), argued that it was imperative to import the remaining 0.075 million tons of sugar from the 0.2 million tons approved by the ECC in February 2009 as well as another 100,000 tons since it was not enough to have sufficient stocks rather there was a need to augment the existing stocks and maintain ''strategic reserves'' to ensure price stability in the market.
TCP Chairman said the TCP was currently holding stocks of 240,000 tons. He said this was inclusive of the 0.078 million tons of imported sugar that had arrived and the 0.047 million tons that was in the pipeline, while 0.075 million tons import was suspended.
Sugarcane Commissioner Punjab said their demand for the remaining five months before the next sugar season commenced was 0.995 million tons (calculated @ 25 kg/ head per year for 88.5 million people for five months). He said they had sufficient reserves in the form of 1.1 million tons.
He said raw sugar imports were viable during the crushing season. The representative of NWFP said their demand for the next five months was 0.65 million tons while they had 0.14 million tons in hand and thus a shortfall of 0.51 million tons.
The representatives of Sindh and Balochistan were not present. The Sugarcane Specialist of the Sugarcane Research Institute Faisalabad spoke about the need to use site specific varieties for each region/zone which were high yield and insect resistant. He said good strains could be developed but it was unfortunate that there was no co-ordination between Research and Agriculture departments. By linking the ''price'' to ''weight'' the crop is rendered uncompetitive. Since the growers producing high sucrose content get the same price as those with low.
It was stressed by all that recovery and sucrose content should be used as a basis to determine sugarcane price. A long term policy for sugarcane was required since in spite of being amongst the top five countries in the world in terms of area covered by sugarcane crop, Pakistan was number fifteen in terms of sugarcane and sugar yield.
The Industries Minister deplored the attitude of those mill owners who did not pay the growers on time and were in turn responsible for discouraging farmers to grow sugarcane.
The mill owners had breached the growers'' trust by using manipulated weighbridges and depriving the farmers of their just payments. The Cane Commissioner Minfa and the Punjab Cane Commissioner stated that they had already completed a lot of work on developing a mechanism for making payments based on sucrose content to farmers and that the private ''Kunda'' weighbridge owners were fleecing the farmers and after being fined Rs 300 restarted the ''Kunda'' since the enforcement by the Provincial Government was poor. He said the sugarcane cess used to construct roads could be employed to have official weighbridges and sucrose testing facilities.