ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: The sugarcane production in two major provinces - Sindh and Punjab - is expected to be considerably lower as compared to the last year, affecting the required supply of major raw material for the production of white sugar to mills in both the provinces, officials told Dawn here on Wednesday.

In Sindh, the production of sugarcane is expected to be 23 per cent less than the last season. In Punjab, the production gap was around eight per cent as compared to the last year, they said.

The lower supply of sugarcane, the officials said, had affected about 20 per cent of sugar mills in Sindh where mill owners had locked horns with the federal and provincial agriculture ministries over the issue of starting crushing during Ramazan.

Despite pressure from the government, the millers started crushing only after Eidul Fitr. Thirty-eight out of 77 sugar mills operating in the country are in Punjab and 32 in Sindh, which means that most of the mills in the country are being affected by lower production of the crop.

In reply to a query, an official said the production of sugarcane in NWFP was also not satisfactory as compared to the last year. Last year, the production throughout the country had crossed the figure of 53 million tons. The bumper crop enabled the mills to reach a total production figure of four million tons.

However, the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) in one of its recent meetings revised the sugar production figure for this season from 3.2 million tons and put it at 3.4 million tons. Minfal officials have attributed the decrease in the sugarcane growth, and ultimately in sugar production, to the unavailability of sufficient water to the crop.

According to the officials, the total consumption of sugar in Pakistan was about 3.6 million tons per year. So, the country would be having a sugar deficit of 200,000 tons for the current season and there is no question of exporting it to other countries.

"At present the Trading Corporation of Pakistan possessed a buffer stock of over 360,000 tons of sugar. The stock will be enough for the coming four to five months because the TCP releases about 50,000 tons of the commodity every month."

The corporation is providing sugar at Rs19 per kg. However, the association of sugar mills has demanded of the government to increase the rate of sugar by Re1 per kg. According to the association, it was against the interest of mill owners to provide sugar at Rs19 per kg.