A spokesman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has said that if sugarcane prices were to rise, the cost of sugar production would also go up. A few weeks earlier, the district administration in Punjab took action against middlemen involved in illegal purchases of cane for transporting and selling (at high rates); an act that is neither beneficial to farmers nor to the sugar industry.
Cane rates, which had previously plummeted, have started to rise again. The PSMA spokesman further stated that the government should take action against middlemen in order to eradicate this ‘mafia’ and to ensure affordability of cane prices. The high cost of producing sugar could result in a rise in sugar prices. The sugar industry is to operate in line with government interests by keeping sugar prices at affordable levels for common people.
He said that the PSMA was not associated with the case filed by supporters of sugarcane middlemen in the Rahim Yar Khan district.
