LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Sugar mill owners have asked the government to allow the immediate export of 400,000 tonnes of surplus sugar and to deregulate the industry, warning that they cannot start crushing the new cane crop while their stocks remain this high.
The demands came from a general body meeting of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, held simultaneously in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad on Wednesday and attended by mill owners from Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The association said about 1.1 million tonnes of surplus sugar remains in the country even after the government approved the export of 200,000 tonnes, and that permission to ship the agreed quota has still not come through.
Crushing season pushed back
Members said that with stocks at their current level it would not be possible to start the 2026-27 crushing season before December. Cane growers depend on mills opening on time to sell their crop, and a late start can also hold up the wheat sowing that follows on the same land.
The meeting gave the association’s executive committee full authority to take the demands to the government “at an appropriate level”. It said a deregulation policy was now imperative because another large surplus is expected by the end of the 2026-27 season, and warned of continued stock build-up and financial strain without timely action.
Mill owners will announce their next steps at a press conference on November 16, the association said. There was no immediate comment from the government.
