PKRC opposes sugar exports, warns of domestic shortage

Business Recorder reported that the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) has called on the government to refrain from approving sugar shipments abroad. The group fears that exports could create an artificial scarcity locally, leaving consumers to buy imported sugar at higher rates. It also warned that mill owners could later request imports by pointing to the very shortage exports would produce.

According to the committee, a campaign has emerged in favour of exports, with advertisements first placed in the names of sugar mill owners and later in those of groups claiming to speak for farmers. Among the names cited are the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, the Punjab Cane Growers Association and Anjuman Kashtkaran Punjab. The PKRC questioned how far some of these bodies truly represent growers and whether they have taken part in past farmer protests.

The committee maintained that genuine farmer groups do not back mill owners' export demand, and that sugar produced domestically should first meet local needs. Exports should be barred whenever shortages or higher local prices are a risk, it said. Its central president Tariq Mahmood and general secretary Riffat Maqsood said the federation would keep working to safeguard both growers and buyers.