‘Lift ban on jaggery export’ The News International, July 10, 2022

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) called for lifting ban on jaggery on Saturday, saying the export of jaggery (gurr) needed to be treated on its own merit irrespective of any surplus or shortage of sugar created by sugar mafia.

UNISAME also requested the Sugar Commissioner and member Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) to recommend lifting of the ban in a SAB meeting scheduled on July 20.

Its president Zulfikar Thaver said the ministry of Commerce had acknowledged that ban on export of gurr was “unintentional” and only when there was a shortage of sugar, the export was disallowed.

UNISAME council members urged the government to treat the two commodities on the basis of rationality and not to be influenced by the sugar mafia. “They should allow export of gurr no matter whether they decide to allow export of sugar or not.”

According to an exporter Hussain Ali Ratnani, there couldn’t be any comparison of the two commodities, sugar and jaggery. “Gurr is not a medicine or a staple food that it would create an issue as export of 10000tons will not matter and would not affect the domestic market.”

He said the argument that gurr was banned because of same HS code as sugar was wrong and therefore invalid. Sugar and gurr are different commodities and their prices are also different, sugar is cheaper and gurr is expensive, he explained.

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