ISLAMABAD: In response to farmers’ grievances over the poor prices of sugarcane provided by sugar mills, Minister for Industries, Production, and National Food Security Rana Tanveer requested a report on sugar prices from provincial cane commissioners.
The minister, who chaired a Sugar Advisory Board meeting on Saturday, emphasized that sugar mill operators must pay a fair price for sugarcane and that farmer abuse would not be accepted.
The board also discussed the state of the nation’s sugar reserves at the moment and declared its total satisfaction.
According to Mr. Tanveer, the punctual start of the sugar crushing season is a noteworthy accomplishment that will guarantee a steady supply of sugar and stabilize the market.
According to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research’s report to the board on the sugarcane crop forecasts for 2024–2025, the nation’s sugarcane acreage was 1.194 million hectares. With a yield of 71.630 tonnes per hectare in 2024–2025 compared to 74.255 tonnes in 2023–2024, the anticipated production is probably going to drop by 3.5%.
Consequently, the production of sugarcane is expected to decrease by 2.4 percent to 85.500 million tonnes in 2024–2025 from 87.638 million tonnes in 2023–2024.
According to projections provided to the board by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, the expected per capita consumption of sugar for the 2021–24 period is 25.7 kg annually, as opposed to 26.4 kg annually in 2022–23.
