This year’s sugarcane crop in Punjab rises 6.5pc YoY: cane commissioner

LAHORE: Sugar mills in Punjab have so far crushed 9.8 million metric tons of sugarcane during the ongoing crushing season producing 880,000 metric tons of the white refined sugar.

Adding the carry forward of 570,000 metric tons at the start of the current crushing season has made the total stocks in the province 1.45 million metric tons, out of which the mills have sold 230,000 metric tons of the commodity till December 18, 2022.

Cane Commissioner Punjab Hussain Bahadur while talking to the Business Recorder on Tuesday said that some circles were alleging the slow production process. He said it was not correct but the crushing season started almost 10-15 days late this year.

Last year, the crushing season started around 15 November and this year it took off on November 25, 2022. He said from November 25, 2022, to December 18, 2022, the production remained at 880,000 metric tons.

Replying to a query, he said that the sugarcane crop was 6.5 percent higher than the last year due to an increase in acreage. This year the growers had planted sugarcane on 2.34 million acres in the province during 2022 while it was planted on over 2.1 million acres in the year 2021, he added.

About payment issues, he said till December 18, 2022, the mills had paid Rs22 billion to the growers. “We have issued FIRs against eight mills so far over different issues like illegal deductions, not-issuing of CPR and delayed crushing,” Hussain Bahadur added.

The Cane Commissioner said that different teams have also been constituted to check the illegal weighing bridges in different districts check the illegal deductions and redress other grievances of the cane growers.

Meanwhile, Asghar Butt, a leading name in wholesale sugar in Akbari Mandi, said now the crushing season was in full swing and prices had shown a little bit of a declining trend.

According to him, ex-mill prices on Tuesday were being quoted at Rs85 per kilogram in Southern Punjab and Rs86 per kilogram in Central Punjab. He also paid gratitude to the government for allowing the export of sugar and said it would help the mills to clear the dues of the growers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022