No sugarcane crushing if crackdown not halted: millers

LAHORE - Sugar Mills Association Punjab Zone Chairman Javed Kiyani has said that sugar mills owners will not reduce the sugar prices as it depends on the open market forces, which fix the commodity rate on daily basis.
He warned if the crackdown against sugar hoarders was not halted, the millers would neither start crushing sugarcane in upcoming season nor they would provide sugar to the Punjab government at the rate of Rs 40 per kg. He said that they would move the court against the government highhandedness.
He was talking to the media after the meeting of the mill owners meeting along the former federal minister Humayun Akhtar Khans brother Haroon Akhtar at his office.
He blamed the federal government and the Trade Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) for the sugar crisis, saying they did not keep the buffer stock of 700,000 metric ton sugar intentionally.
He warned the government that sugar prices in the international market would reach 40 cent per kg, leading the commodity rate to climb up to Rs 100 per kg.
The Sugar Mills Association Punjab Zone chairman stated that in next year, the per kg sugar price would hover between Rs 65 to 100 because of 30 per cent less production of sugarcane
He said the allegations regarding sugar mafia and sugar millers monopoly were absolutely baseless, adding that they had made all the payments to the farmers.
He said Punjab chief secretary had assured them that no crackdown would be launched against them if they promised to supply sugar at Rs 40 per kg during Ramazan. But the government did not fulfil the promise and launched crackdown, breaking the supply system in the wholesale market, as 75 per cent of the shopkeepers were without any stock, he added.
Kiyani maintained that crackdown had created panic among the traders who were not ready to sell sugar.
He said, We had asked the government to allow them to import 4,00,000 metric ton raw sugar as production was in a smaller amount, adding had their suggestion was accepted the crisis would not have emerged.
He said the government instead of catching the real hoarders was arresting the smaller ones, creating further shortage in the market.
It is pertinent to mention that the government had launched crackdown against the hoarders of sugar stocks across the Punjab, carried out raids at various private godowns and seized thousands tons of white refined sugar.
The government sealed all the godowns, where the sugar stocks were stashed and arrested dozens of culprits during the past few days. As a result, panic gripped sugar dealers as they went underground to avoid raids and arrests.
The government had recovered 20,000 tons of refined sugar during the first day of the crackdown.