Plan Ready to Fully De-regulate Sugar Sector

The National Assembly Standing Committee on National Food Security voiced serious concern over delays in sugarcane crushing and sharp fluctuations in cane prices. A comprehensive plan to fully deregulate the sugar sector has been finalized and will soon be submitted to the prime minister. The meeting reviewed the ongoing crushing season and the proposed deregulation framework. The chairman noted that sugarcane prices had fallen sharply after the start of harvesting, despite standing at around Rs. 470 per maund earlier, warning that delays in crushing were directly hurting farmers’ incomes. Officials from the Ministry of National Food Security told the committee that work on deregulating the sugar sector was in its final stages. The ministry’s secretary said a committee headed by Awais Leghari had completed its work after eight meetings and prepared a detailed framework, which would be presented to the prime minister shortly. Under the proposed policy, the sugar sector will be fully deregulated. However, the Sugar Advisory Board will continue to function to protect farmers’ interests. The secretary added that a meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board has been scheduled for next week. Briefing the committee on the crushing season, officials said sugarcane crushing was underway nationwide, with up to 11 million tons of cane already crushed. They acknowledged, however, that some sugar mills in Sindh were not submitting crushing reports. Syed Hussain Tariq highlighted that despite it being mid-December, only 12 percent of crushing had taken place. He warned that from January onwards, sugarcane weight would begin to decline. The chairman accused sugar mills of raising prices initially to encourage harvesting and then deliberately delaying crushing to force prices down. He said mills were operating at their own discretion, intentionally slowing operations and causing significant losses to farmers. Meanwhile, the Secretary Food Punjab informed the committee that all sugar mills in Punjab were fully operational and actively engaged in sugarcane crushing.