LAHORE: The upcoming 2026-27 sugar crushing season is facing a significant delay, with the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) unanimously declaring that mill owners will not commence operations before December due to an overwhelming glut of unsold inventory.
During a high-stakes General Body meeting held simultaneously across Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad on Wednesday, mill owners from Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa expressed severe concerns over the government’s continued hesitation to authorize large-scale exports.
The industry’s apex representative body revealed that even after the government’s prior approval to export 200,000 tonnes, a staggering surplus of approximately 1.1 million metric tonnes of sugar remains trapped in the domestic market. Under these financially strained circumstances, mill owners stated it is completely unfeasible to start up their heavy machinery and procure fresh sugarcane from farmers for the upcoming season.
To resolve the impasse, the General Body delegated full authority to the PSMA’s Executive Committee to approach the federal government at the highest levels. The association has laid out two primary conditions to avert an industry-wide crisis: the immediate permission for the early export of an additional 400,000 metric tonnes of surplus sugar, and the immediate implementation of the long-awaited deregulation policy for the sugar sector.
The demand for deregulation stems from a structural cycle of overproduction. The PSMA leadership stressed that releasing the deregulation policy is now an absolute imperative, as forward estimates suggest another massive surplus of sugar will accumulate by the end of the 2026–27 crushing season. Without timely and decisive policy action, the association warned that the industry will face unsustainable stock accumulation, leading to severe financial bottlenecks that will ultimately delay payments to the country’s sugarcane farmers.
Expressing hope that the federal authorities will resolve the bottleneck in the broader interest of the agricultural economy, the General Body tasked the association with taking an aggressive lead in engaging the government on all pending regulatory matters.
As a first step to escalate the matter, the PSMA announced it will formally write to the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan to seek an urgent meeting to apprise him of the looming industrial crisis. Furthermore, sugar mill owners from across the country are scheduled to hold a joint press conference in Lahore on November 16, 2026, where they will unveil their final course of action if the government fails to issue the required export quotas.