Unisame urges for allowing jiggery, brown sugar export

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged Federal Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar to allow the export of sugar and other sweeteners including brown sugar and jiggery, a statement said.

Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said that there is a surplus of sugar in the country and the government must allow its exports to earn valuable foreign exchange.

He also urged for allowing the export of other sweeteners such as jiggery (gur) and brown sugar. The exports of these commodities were banned unnecessarily despite the exports of jiggery and brown sugar accounting for only one per cent of sugar production which is negligible and would not cause any issue, Thaver added.

The ministry of commerce had admitted that jiggery and brown sugar were mistakenly banned.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda), the Ministry of Industries and Production also supported the Unisame’s demand to allow export of jiggery and brown sugar on its own merit whether export of sugar was allowed or not.

Pakistan is blessed with more than sufficient sugarcane production and the sugar mills have sufficient inventory to meet the requirements of the domestic market.

There is a need for allowing its exports forthwith to meet the requirements of foreign buyers and any delay would result in missing on the opportunity as other countries having surplus will secure the orders.

The Unisame council members have urged the government to allow export of jiggery as it is the livelihood of the SME farmers and its total production is hardly one per cent of the total sugar production.

However now that the government seems inclined to allow export of sugar as the sugar mills association is demanding export of sugar. The export of jiggery and brown sugar also should be allowed to promote the jiggery industry and enable it to regain the lost market captured by India and China, the members added.

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