ISLAMABAD Since sugar prices have already increased by 42% over the previous year, the powerful sugar sector has begun advocating for significant exports, or at least one million tons, in order to “ensure payments to farmers.”
According to well-informed sources, the sugar millers had already used their political connections inside the new administration to obtain approval for sugar exports and some government purchases of strategic reserves in order to maintain more profitability in spite of the nation’s inflationary pressures.
The crop yield was about 1.5 million tonnes more than the local needs, thus the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) formally requested in a letter that Commerce Minister Jam Kamal begin the licensing procedure for exporting at least one million tonnes in two equal instalments.
It insisted that the government buy the final 0.5 million tonnes. The sugar cartel argued that doing this would guarantee $700 million in foreign exchange earnings as well as regular payments to farmers. According to the report, sugar was Pakistan’s second-largest agro-based industry, behind textiles, with an annual direct and indirect economic activity of between Rs. 800 billion and Rs. 1 trillion in the transportation, allied industries, wholesale, and retail markets.
According to the letter, the sugar sector supported the national economy by substituting $5 billion worth of imports, employing 1.5 million people directly, and paying the federal, provincial, and local governments over Rs. 125 billion in direct and indirect taxes.
