LAHORE:Sugarcane farmers Thursday urged the government to allow immediate export of surplus sugar.
Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran Punjab (registered) chairman Rana Iftikhar Muhammad chaired a meeting at Lahore and said if the government does not allow the export of surplus sugar then another crisis after the wheat crisis will emerge.
Farmers Welfare Council Pakistan president Muhammad Ayub Chaudhry advocate and Pakistan Kisan Movement president Hanif Gujjar also attended the meeting.
Rana Iftikhar said if the government continues to ignore the sugarcane farmers’ demands, no one will be in the position of averting another financial crisis. He said farmers are already devastated by other crops and now they have pinned their hopes on the sugarcane crop which they hope will save them from more financial troubles.
He said the next year farmers are cultivating 30 percent more sugarcane which can give annual profit of $2billion to the government every year. They appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Chief Minister of Punjab to intervene and make immediate arrangements to export surplus sugar.