Sugar Mill Owners refuse to start crushing from mid-November

The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has said that no final date has been set for the start of the upcoming sugar crushing season, following a meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board.

The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association said in a statement that several mill owners and representatives attended the Sugar Advisory Board’s meeting.

The mill owners took the position in the meeting that sufficient sugar stocks are currently available in the country, and they stressed that there is no justification for starting the mills on November 15th.

They said mills would decide individually when to begin operations once existing stocks are down, adding that there is no need for the federal government to issue a start date. Mill owners assured that domestic sugar stocks are adequate to meet national demand until mid-December.

Sugar Mill Owners warned that an early start could result in crushing undeveloped sugarcane with a lower sucrose level, potentially reducing output by around 300,000 tones and causing billions of rupees in losses to the economy and the sugar sector.

They also cautioned that an early start could strain mills’ cash flows, and they will bear additional financial costs to keep these stocks. In addition, the sugarcane farmers may be effected, as due to the financial crunch, mills may not be able to offer competitive prices for the crop.

The association further maintained that the government unnecessarily imported nearly 325,000 tons of sugar, and claimed that local supply had remained stable before the imports. It said the closure of the FBR portals for imported sugar sales disrupted supply chains and led to higher market prices, a situation the industry said it was neither a beneficiary of nor responsible for.

The PSMA said that after the issue was identified, the supply of sugar from sugar mills at the notified ex-mill price is being restored.