CROPS IN PAKISTAN
Main agricultural products: cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; milk, beef, mutton, eggs and, shrimp. Millet, pulses, oils seeds, tobacco and opium are also grown. Major crops for domestic consumption: wheat, rice, millet, pulses, oils seeds and fruit. Main cash crops and crops for export: cotton, wheat, rice and sugarcane. Most of the cash crops are grown in the Punjab and to a less extent the Sindh.
Rice and cotton are very labor intensive. In the early 1990s, most crops were grown for food. Wheat is arguably the most important food crop in Pakistan. It is the staple for the majority of the population. Wheat is eaten most frequently in unleavened breads such as chapatis and naan. For a while Pakistan was a leading producer of millet. Lots of sugar cane is produced on irrigated land in the Punjab and Sindh.
Pakistan is one of the world's largest producers of raw cotton. Pakistan is also a major rice exporter and annually exports about 2 million tons, or about 10 percent of world trade. Rice is Pakistan's second leading source of export earnings. Private traders handle most exports. Other important food grains are millet, sorghum, corn, and barley. Corn, although a minor crop, gradually increased in area and production after independence, partly at the expense of other minor food grains. Chickpeas, called gram in Pakistan, are the main nongrain food crop in area and production. A number of other foods, including fruits and vegetables, are also grown. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994*]
Other cash crops include tobacco, rapeseed, and, most important, sugarcane. In 1992 sugarcane was planted on 880,000 hectares, and production was 35.7 million tons. Except for some oil from cottonseeds, the country is dependent on imported vegetable oil. By the 1980s, introduction and experimentation with oilseed cultivation was under way. Soybeans and sunflower seeds appear to be suitable crops given the country's soil and climate, but production was still negligible in the early 1990s.*
Minor crops such as oilseeds (sunflower, soybean), chilies, potatoes, and onions account for only five percent of total cultivated area. Domestic oilseed production accounts only for about 25 percent of Pakistan total edible oil needs. This means Pakistan spends more than US$1 billion annually of precious hard currency to import edible oils, while its oilseed processing industry operates at less than 25 percent of capacity due to an inadequate supply of oilseeds. Oilseed production in the early 2000s was around 3.6 million tons. The government singled improvements in the oilseed sector as a problem that needed to be addressed. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
Improved government policies in the 1990s and early 2000s helped make Pakistan a net exporter of guar products, molasses, fruits tobacco, cotton, rice and vegetables, 2004 output levels for important crops (in thousands of tons): wheat, 19,767; sugarcane, 53,419; and corn, 2,775; sunflower seeds, 404,000. Other crops include barley, sesame, flax, groundnuts, mangoes and citrus fruits. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
High Food Prices Roil Pakistan
Percentage of income spent on food in Pakistan: 44.5 percent [Source: Washington State University ( wsu.edu/researcher/WSMaug ; Vox vox.com ]
In February 2008, Pakistani Sheikh Rashid Ahmed blamed his party’s loss in parliamentary poll not on sectarian violence, terrorism or the war in Afghanistan but "because people were angry over the fact atta [flour] was not available, that food prices were high, and due to this they felt insecure." [Source: Simon Robinson, Time, February 27, 2008]
Simon Robinson wrote in Time: “Pakistanis have been grumbling about rising inflation for more than a year now, but in the past few months the sticker shock has grown much worse. Wheat prices have jumped by more than 20 percent since November, driven up by rising global prices as well as local hoarding ahead of the election and wheat smuggling into neighboring Afghanistan. The price of the gas that many Pakistanis use to cook with has also skyrocketed. January's inflation rate was nearly 12 percent, the highest in almost three years.
“Basic foodstuffs are now so expensive and scarce that people have begun queuing for hours at government stores, where it is cheaper because of subsidies. When those same people lined up to cast their ballot last week, many of them apparently voted against Musharraf's ruling party. "It played a very important role," says Saeed Chaudhry, an economics lecturer at the National University of Modern Languages. "Hungry people are not happy people."
The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization says the world's food stocks are at record lows. And as the food shortage takes a tighter grip, it could start exacting a political toll in more countries than just Pakistan. The threat is particularly sharp in developing countries where food routinely accounts for more than half of household spending, compared to 20 percent or less in rich countries. As Chaudhry says: Hungry people are not happy people.
In Pakistan, where at least 25 percent of the country's 169 million people live in poverty, government subsidies have helped keep the prices of some items down. Islamabad spends some US$2 billion on fuel subsidies, for instance. Sadly for ordinary Pakistanis and for the incoming government, the country's rapidly worsening fiscal deficit will make it harder to keep underwriting those costs. Continuing the subsidies will only worsen the country's budgetary woes. But if the government passes on the true cost of gas, the resulting increase will fuel inflation even more.
Mindful that the worst may be yet to come, the State Bank of Pakistan is ratcheting up interest rates, though it still expects inflation "to remain high" through the rest of 2008. That won't impress vegetable vendor Faiz Mohamed, 50, who says that Pakistan's economic success in the past few years has benefited only the elite. "A particular class has earned a lot from the investment, the new [cell] phones, all that," he says, from behind his worn metal scales. But, he says, "the poor man has become poorer."
wheat harvest in Pakistan
Wheat in Pakistan
Wheat is arguably the most important food crop in Pakistan. It is the staple for the majority of the population. Wheat is eaten most frequently in unleavened breads such as chapatis and naan. In 1992, wheat was planted on 7.8 million hectares, and production amounted to 14.7 million tons. Output in 1993 reached 16.4 million tons. Between 1961 and 1990, the area under wheat cultivation increased nearly 70 percent, while yields increased 221 percent. Wheat production is vulnerable to extreme weather, especially in nonirrigated areas. In the early and mid-1980s, Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat, but in the early 1990s more than 2 million tons of wheat were imported annually. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”: The 2000-01 wheat crop was a record 19.3 million tons, compared to 17.8 million tons produced during the previous year. This increase is due largely to favorable weather and a 25-percent increase in the procurement price to about US$135 per ton. About 85 percent of the crop is irrigated. Despite the record production, Pakistan will continue to be a major wheat importer. The government has imported an average of US$2.4 million annually over the past 5 years. The United States and Australia are the major suppliers. Demand for wheat is increasing from Pakistan's rapidly growing population as well as from cross-border trade with Afghanistan. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
Top wheat-producing countries: (Production, US$1000; Production, metric tons in 2008, FAO): 1) China, 15805966 , 112463296; 2) India, 11671546 , 78570200; 3) United States of America, 9301602 , 68016100; 4) Russian Federation, 6670506 , 63765140; 5) Canada, 4462759 , 28611100; 6) France, 4388762 , 39001700; 7) Pakistan, 3023994 , 20958800; 8) Australia, 2653403 , 21420177; 9) Ukraine, 2618186 , 25885400; 10) Turkey, 2428920 , 17782000; 11) Germany, 2315299 , 25988565; 12) United Kingdom, 1666334 , 17227000; 13) Kazakhstan, 1378582 , 12538200; 14) Argentina, 1234294 , 8508156; 15) Egypt, 1012186 , 7977051; 16) Italy, 897733 , 8855440; 17) Romania, 895241 , 7180980; 18) Brazil, 877289 , 6027131; 19) Poland, 811707 , 9274920; 20) Iran (Islamic Republic of), 800547 , 7956647;
Rice in Pakistan
Rice is the other major food grain. In 1992, about 2.1 million hectares were planted with rice, and production amounted to 3.2 million tons, with 1 million tons exported. Rice yields also have increased sharply since the 1960s following the introduction of new varieties. Nonetheless, the yield per hectare of around 1.5 tons in 1991 was low compared with many other Asian countries. Pakistan has emphasized the production of rice in order to increase exports to the Middle East and therefore concentrates on the high-quality basmati variety, although other grades also are exported. The government increased procurement prices of basmati rice disproportionately to encourage exports and has allowed private traders into the rice export business alongside the public-sector Rice Export Corporation. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]
Rice covers about 12 percent of all cropland. Production in 2004-05 was 5.02 million tons. According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”: “Pakistan is a major rice exporter and annually exports about 2 million tons, or about 10 percent of world trade. About 25 percent of exports is Pakistan's famous fragrant Basmati rice. Rice is Pakistan's second leading source of export earnings. Private traders handle all exports. Pakistan's main competitors in rice trade are Thailand, Vietnam, and India. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002; “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Top rice-producing countries: (Production, US$1000; Production, metric tons in 2008, FAO): 1) China, 36561286 , 193354175; 2) India, 30246312 , 148260000; 3) Indonesia, 12440012 , 60251072; 4) Bangladesh, 9868753 , 46905000; 5) Viet Nam, 7918880 , 38725100; 6) Thailand, 6059404 , 31650632; 7) Myanmar, 5612813 , 30500000; 8) Philippines, 3382928 , 16815548; 9) Brazil, 2522762 , 12061465; 10) Japan, 2337305 , 11028750; 11) Pakistan, 2162313 , 10428000; 12) United States of America, 1930780 , 9241173; 13) Egypt, 1476323 , 7253373; 14) Republic of Korea, 1464007 , 6919250; 15) Cambodia, 1463123 , 7175473; 16) Nigeria, 864799 , 4179000; 17) Nepal, 850799 , 4299264; 18) Sri Lanka, 802185 , 3875000; 19) Madagascar, 592679 , 3000000; 20) Peru, 584882 , 2775800; The worlds top exporters of rice are (1991): 1) Thailand, 2) the U.S., 3) Pakistan, 4) Vietnam, 5) China, 6) Australia, 7) Italy, 8) India, 9) Uruguay, 10) Spain.
Cotton in Pakistan
Cotton is Pakistan's largest cash crop. At one time it accounted directly or indirectly for 60 percent of the Pakistan's exports. Cotton production suffered in the late 1990s from leaf curl virus. In 2004-05, production totaled 11.3 million bales.
In the early 1990s, cotton was Pakistan’s most important commercial crop. The area planted in cotton increased from 1.1 million hectares in 1950 to 2.1 million hectares in 1981 and 2.8 million hectares in 1993. Yields increased substantially in the 1980s, partly as a result of the use of pesticides and the introduction in 1985 of a new high-yielding variety of seed. During the 1980s, cotton yields moved from well below the world average to above the world average. Production in 1992 was 12.8 million bales, up from 4.4 million bales ten years earlier. Output fell sharply, however, to 9.3 million bales in 1993 because of the September 1992 floods and insect infestations. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”: “The size of the annual cotton crop — the bulk of it grown in Punjab province — is a crucial barometer of the health of the overall economy, as it determines the availability and cost of the main raw material for the yarn-spinning industry, much of which is concentrated around the southern port city of Karachi. Official estimates put the 1999-2000 harvest at some 11.2 million 170-kilogram bales, compared with the 1998-99 outturn of 8.8 million bales and the record 12.8 million bales achieved in 1991-92. The government recently actively intervened in the market to boost prices and to encourage production. A major problem is that the cotton crop is highly susceptible to adverse weather and pest damage, which is reflected in crop figures. After peaking at 2.18 million tons in 1991-92, the lint harvest has since fluctuated considerably, ranging from a low of 1.37 million tons in 1993-94 to a high of 1.9 million tons in 1999-2000. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
Top Producing Countries: (Production, US$1000; Production, metric tons in 2008, FAO): 1) China, 11133600 , 7500000; 2) India, 5621725 , 3787000; 3) United States of America, 4141996 , 2790200; 4) Pakistan, 2983804 , 2010000; 5) Brazil, 1953551 , 1315984; 6) Uzbekistan, 1820269 , 1226200; 7) Turkey, 999055 , 673000; 8) Greece, 430499 , 290000; 9) Turkmenistan, 415654 , 280000; 10) Syrian Arab Republic, 362213 , 244000; 11) Burkina Faso, 335492 , 226000; 12) Nigeria, 247908 , 167000; 13) Egypt, 237516 , 160000; 14) Argentina, 201889 , 136000; 15) Australia, 197138 , 132800; 16) Benin, 186005 , 125300; 17) Mexico, 185560 , 125000; 18) Tajikistan, 172941 , 116500; 19) Mozambique, 166606 , 112232; 20) Kazakhstan, 155870 , 105000;
The worlds top producers of cotton in 1988 were: 1) China, 2) the U.S., 3) the USSR, 4) India, 5) Pakistan, 6) Brazil, 7) Turkey, 8) Egypt, 9) Mexico, 10) Australia.
The worlds top exporters of cotton in 1988 were: : 1) the U.S., 2) the USSR, 3) Pakistan, 4) China, 5) Australia, 6) Paraguay, 7) Sudan, 8) Turkey, 9) Mexico, 10) Argentina.
Opium and Tobacco in Pakistan
Opium poppy cultivation in Pakistan was estimated to be 930 hectares in 2015, compared to 183,000 hectares in Afghanistan. It used to be much higher. Opium poppies were grown in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) on an estimated 2,500–3,000 hectares (6,200–7,400 acres) in 2003. At that time the government was working in cutting cultivation and discouraging trade in opium, which had been reduced by over 95 percent since the mid-1980s. [Source: United Nations, CIA World Factbook, 2020, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Opium has been grown in remote valleys around Peshawar. In the North-West Frontier Province, terraces with poppies were alternated with ones with wheat. In 1983, a kilo of opium sold for around US$30 in the Siah valley, five times higher than anything else. There were no narcotic laws in the town of Darra, which is famous for its huge gun and weapons market. Hashish and opium were sold openly there and still can easily found. Up until 1979 Pakistan had licensed opium shops where Pakistanis could buy up to 23 grams of opium a day. The closing of these “vend shops” forced the country's addicts to turn to the illicit sources.
Largest illegal opium producers in 1983: 1) Burma (60,000 hectares under cultivation produced 600 metric tons); 2) Iran (20,000 hectares, according to 1980 statistics); 3) Afghanistan (20,000 hectares); 4) Pakistan (4,500 hectares); 5) Mexico (4,100 hectares); 6) Thailand (3,500 hectares); 7) Laos (3,500 hectares); 8) Egypt (300 hectares).
Illegal opium production (tons in 2000); 1) Afghanistan (3,276); 2) Burma (1,087); 3) Laos (167); 4) Columbia (88); 5) Mexico (22); 6) Pakistan (8); 7) Thailand (6); 8) Vietnam (2).
See Separate Article OPIUM AND HEROIN PRODUCTION AND ILLEGAL DRUG TRAFFICKING IN PAKISTAN
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”: Tobacco is grown mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and is an important cash crop . Yields in Pakistan are about twice those for neighboring countries largely due to the extension services provided by the industry. Quality, however, is improving only slowly due to problems related to climate and soil. Farmers have started inter-cropping tobacco with vegetables and sugarcane to increase returns. About half of the total production is used for cigarette manufacturing and the remainder used in traditional ways of smoking (in hand-rolled cigarettes called birris, in water pipes, and as snuff). The share of imported tobacco is increasing gradually in response to an increased demand for high-quality cigarettes. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
Sugar in Pakistan
Pakistan produces a lot of sugar and Pakistanis consume a lot of the stuff. Pakistan’s annual sugar consumption fluctuates between 3.6 million and 4.2 million tons. The average annual consumption of sugar is around 25 kilograms (55 pounds) per person, higher than India, China or Bangladesh. Pakistan's 82 sugar mills process about 64 million tons of sugar cane a year. [Source: Reuters, September 10, 2009]
The sugar cane crop takes around 18 months to mature. Most of it is produced in the Punjab but in now also is grown on around 320,000 hectares in the Sindh province, mostly in the lower Sindh region, but also upper Sindh too. In Ghotki district alone, five sugar mills are operational, in what traditionally been known as a rich cotton-growing area. [Source: Mohammad Hussain Khan, Dawn, December 17, 2018]
One fixture of sugar production in Pakistan is that millers like to delay crushing. There are even laws that try to prevent them from doing this because belated harvesting always panics sugar cane growers into selling their crop to mills or their middlemen at a lower than the official rate. Mohammad Hussain Khan wrote in Dawn: “Sugar factory owners delay crushing for a number of factors that range from getting increased sucrose recovery to procuring the crop at an inadequate price from farmers. A delayed harvest of sugar cane increases sucrose content in the crop whereas farmers get the rate on the basis of crop weight. Belated harvesting always panics growers into selling their crop to mills or their middlemen. Growers have to use land under the sugar cane crop for the sowing of wheat for which the ideal time is November. Late sowing also leads to lower per-acre grain productivity.
Top Producing Countries of Sugar Cane: (Production, US$1000; Production, metric tons in 2008, FAO): 1) Brazil, 13299034 , 645300182; 2) India, 6725632 , 348187900; 3) China, 2482336 , 124917502; 4) Thailand, 1526628 , 73501610; 5) Pakistan, 1194856 , 63,920,000; 6) Mexico, 1061490 , 51106900; 7) Colombia, 738608 , 38500000; 8) Australia, 677540 , 32621113; 9) Argentina, 622061 , 29950000; 10) Indonesia, 540020 , 26000000; 11) Guatemala, 526867 , 25436764; 12) Philippines, 509432 , 26601400; 13) United States of America, 486267 , 25041020; 14) South Africa, 425785 , 20500000; 15) Viet Nam, 331293 , 16128000; 16) Egypt, 311224 , 16469947; 17) Cuba, 217191 , 15700000; 18) Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), 196238 , 9448162; 19) Peru, 195154 , 9395959; 20) Ecuador, 190483 , 9341095;
Sugar Country, Pakistan
Reporting from Kanjwani, a bustling village in the middle of sugar country in Punjab, Pamela Constable wrote in Washington Post: “ Fields of tall green cane line the roads, and flatbed trucks piled with ripe stalks head for a modern mill that steadily crushes tons of cane into refined white crystals. The Tandlianwala mill hummed with activity as its presses, vats and conveyor belts chewed up tons of raw cane and converted it into hundreds of bags of pristine sugar. The immaculate compound contained rose gardens, fish ponds and a school for employees' children. [Source: Pamela Constable, Washington Post, November 28, 2009]
“Pakistan is a nation of unabashed sugarholics, who heap the crystals in their breakfast tea and devour cakes at every special occasion. Sugar may be far less important to the national diet than wheat or cooking oil, but it looms much larger in the national psyche. And although Pakistan's judiciary is often viewed as a handmaiden of the ruling rural elites, the Supreme Court has upheld a ruling by a Punjab court capping the retail price of sugar at about 25 cents a pound.”
In the lush surrounding countryside,” around Kanjwani “where hundreds of farmers grow cane to sell to Tandlianwala, it was clear from the busy shops and ubiquitous motorcycles that sugar had been good for the local economy. Still, cutting cane — whether for a feudal landlord or on a tiny family plot — remains a harsh, backbreaking way to earn a living. Jan Mohammed, a toothless, illiterate tenant farmer in his late 70s, grows cane on a single rented acre, cutting and loading it by hand, as he has done for 50 years. He estimated that he would earn about US$50 for his current crop. "There is a crisis in sugar because the strong people kept it for their own gain," Mohammed said during a sugar shortage in 2008. "I blame the owners, the traders and the government, too. Next season, I'm going to switch to wheat."
Inefficiency of Sugar Production in the Sindh
There were 32 sugar mills in Sindh around 2010. That number increased to 38 by 2018. Former president Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto’s husband, who owns a large share of the Omni Group has around a dozen sugar mills in lower Sindh. He said that some sick units were revitalised to create employment opportunities in those areas. [Source: Mohammad Hussain Khan, Dawn, December 17, 2018]
Mohammad Hussain Khan wrote in Dawn: “He is not wrong altogether. Not only the number of mills has increased in Sindh, but also the per-day crushing capacity of several units has increased to 10,000-12,000 tonnes from 4,000-5,000 tonnes over the last 10 years, according to Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah, a progressive farmer.Given such growth in the sugar industry — primarily supported by banks’ financing — one can safely assume that the sugar business remains largely lucrative. Besides sugar cane, the crop produces a number of by-products. Some mills also produce electricity by burning bagasse.
“Analysts say that if this industry was unprofitable, big industrialists like Jahangir Khan Tareen would not be expanding their businesses beyond Punjab and setting up mills in upper Sindh’s Ghotki district. Mr Tareen is known for paying the notified price of Rs182 per 40kg for the last few years. The Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) should explain why Mr Tareen’s mills comfortably pay growers the notified price in Sindh while other mills call the rate unaffordable.
“Economist Dr Kaiser Bengali asserts that the sugar sector is structurally inefficient as it is quasi monopsony, which refers to a market structure in which a single buyer substantially controls the market as the major purchaser of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers. According to Dr Bengali, 38 men decide at which price they will buy sugar cane from farmers. He believes that this industry will remain in crisis forever and that it is better for Pakistan to start importing sugar. “Being water-intensive, sugar cane is not Pakistan’s crop. We can import sugar, which will be cost effective,” Dr Bengali says, adding that sugar cane production is unviable for Sindh as much as apple production is unviable for Balochistan. He says that sugar prices remain on the lower side in the international market. “With surplus sugar in stock, sugar mills want to export them. They demand a subsidy, which also comes out of public purse.”
Sugar Shortage Causes Big Uproar in Pakistan
In 2009, Pakistan suffered a huge sugar shortage — even though it produces lots of the stuff. Growers said the shortage was the result of a drought; consumers blamed it on politics and greed. Pamela Constable wrote in Washington Post: “From the busy and bucolic scene in” Kanjwani “it is hard to tell that Pakistan is in the throes of a national sugar crisis. But 200 miles north, in the crowded and chaotic city of Rawalpindi, the frustration of people waiting in long lines for emergency sugar rations often erupts into tirades against the government, the hoarders, the black marketeers and especially the wealthy families that dominate Pakistan's lucrative sugar industry. "Without sugar, my children will be crying when I get home. It is all because of strong people, the big owners and traders who have a lot of influence," said Syed Inayat, 40, a trash collector who was waiting for his sugar ration outside a government store one recent morning. [Source: Pamela Constable, Washington Post, November 28, 2009]
“Half a century ago, a sugar shortage helped bring down Pakistan's military regime. For the past four months, a similar shortage has led to skyrocketing prices and empty market shelves, sending consumers and officials into a panic. The protracted drama has been marked by riots and protests, arrests and raids, accusations of price-fixing and hoarding, rationed distribution in cities and direct intervention by the Supreme Court.
Alex Rodriguez wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “ The government has accused mill owners of hoarding to artificially send prices higher. But sugar mills hoarding their stockpiles isn't the only reason prices have shot up from an average of about 34 cents for 2.2 pounds last year to a peak of 63 cents this summer. Many farmers switched to wheat this year to capitalize on a government move to raise the minimum price for that crop. That contributed to a drop in sugar cane output, from 4.7 million tons in 2008 to a projected 3.2 million tons this year. Water shortages also have played a role. [Source: Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009]
Mill owners blame the government. In 2008, they said, they knew that farmers would be producing a smaller crop this year and asked the government to import 700,000 tons of raw sugar to keep prices stable. The government balked, said Iskander Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Assn. Khan denied that mills were hoarding. "Hoarding means something hidden, kept away," he said. "But this isn't the case with the sugar industry. We declared all of our stocks."
“Experts and government officials disagree and say hoarding has aggravated the shortfall. In Punjab province, the heart of Pakistan's sugar industry, police have raided mills and seized thousands of tons of sugar that the government said was being held back to artificially raise prices. Police in the southern Punjab city of Rahim Yar Khan said they recently arrested 13 people on charges of hoarding. Checkpoints have been set up on the city's outskirts to prevent the mills from moving sugar to different locations. But experts say police do not have the manpower to deploy officers at all of the nation's mills. And, even if police ranks were beefed up, officials probably wouldn't dispatch officers to mills with ties to the government or major political parties. The crackdown, Shahid said, "was just to give the impression that the government was doing something."
Pakistan’s Sugar Barons and Politicians Blamed for the Sugar Shortage
Many of Pakistan’s mills are owned by powerful politicians. "Out of the 85 sugar mills we have, 33 are either owned directly by politicians or indirectly through relatives," A.B. Shahid, an economic analyst, told the Los Angeles Times . "There's every evidence that the sugar cartel has enormous power, and has been wielding it without the slightest fear of administrative action." "If there is one industry that best reflects the underlying power structure in Pakistan, it is sugar," Adeel Malik, an economist at the University of Oxford, wrote in a commentary published in the News, a Pakistani daily. "The role of politics is central — from the sanctioning of a sugar mill to its financing and operation." [Source: Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2009]
Pamela Constable wrote in Washington Post: “The owners of Pakistan's 82 sugar mills have been the main targets of public wrath and official intervention. Critics and consumer activists charge that these agro-industrialists have conspired to fix prices and hoard sugar stocks. "Rarely, even in the rancid annals of Pakistan's politics, has there been such a display of rampant and shameless self-interest," scolded the News International newspaper in an editorial titled "The Robber Barons." It described Pakistan's sugar-mill owners as "a particularly odious clutch" of tycoons who are "fleecing the pockets of the poor." [Source: Pamela Constable, Washington Post, November 28, 2009]
In September 2009, Khalid Mirza, chairman of the Competition Commission of Pakistan, a small and beleaguered government agency commission, ordered “surprise raids on the three main offices of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association. According to the panel's report, the investigators found numerous documents that showed "extensive institutionalization of collusive behavior" among mill owners, including agreements on cane and sugar prices. It was a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a privileged and insulated economic microsystem. "I bend over backwards to be fair, but there are huge moneyed interests against this law," Mirza said in an interview in Islamabad, the capital, where legislators linked to major industries, including sugar, have been scrambling to kill the anti-monopoly bill. "We are not out to punish, but we want these industries to adopt fair and reasonable practices," he said. "We are not going to flinch."
“The government bureaucracy moved tardily to defuse the crisis. This month it imported 700,000 tons of sugar for distribution to more than 5,700 state utility stores across the country. Beginning two weeks ago, consumers were finally able to buy sugar at a subsidized price — even though it often ran out and private shops continued to charge almost double. The mill owners went on the counterattack. In news releases and TV interviews, they denied behaving like a cartel and accused the government of exacerbating the sugar crisis. The group said officials ignored its early warnings of a cane crop shortfall, then overreacted and intervened in arbitrary ways that worsened the problem.
"The media calls us a cartel, but it is all garbage," said Haroon Akhtar Khan, a senator from an influential family who is managing director of the giant Tandlianwala Sugar Mills. He described the sugar business as a series of complex, price- and time-sensitive negotiations with growers, traders, bankers and officials. "I don't hoard or collude or manipulate, but I do need to sell my stock at the right time."
Mangoes in Pakistan
Pakistan produces about 1.5 million to 2 million tons of mangoes a year and is a major exporter of the fruit. It began exporting them to the United States in 2011 after sending its first shipments to Europe in 2010. They are mainly grown in southern Punjab and northern Sindh, generating employment and boosting the economy there. [Source: Express Tribune, January 5, 2011].
In an article on why Pakistan exports so many mangoes, more than even India, the world’s largest producers, Shivam Vij, an Indian, wrote in Huffington Post: “Looking for foreign approval as always, Pakistanis are tom-tomming export figures that show Pakistan exports more mangoes than India, even though India produces a lot more of them. Pakistan's population is less than a sixth of India's, but it produces less than a tenth the number of mangoes India does. Pakistan produced just 1.72 million tonnes mangoes in 2014, India produced 18.43 million tonnes. You can do the per capita math. Despite such a shortfall, Pakistan chooses to export its mangoes in large numbers. What does that tell you? Pakistanis don't want their own mangoes! [Source: Shivam Vij, Huffington Post, July 4, 2017]
“Pakistan has 400 varieties of the fruit, India has 1,200. Pakistan's famous Anwar Ratol mango has its roots in the mango orchards of Ratol village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, three hours from Delhi. The first Ratol tree stands proudly there even today. To further their mango business, Pakistan has the habit of sending crates of them to global leaders including the Indian president and prime minister, nearly every year, often even when soldiers are firing at each other across the Line of Control. India, a mango superpower, secure in its mango love, rightly does not reciprocate. India produces more than a third of all the world's mangoes.
“Yet the real issue isn't about export numbers. It's a more fundamental idea of why the Pakistanis are so eager and desperate to export their mangoes, and India isn't. It's obvious: Pakistani mangoes aren't delicious enough to be consumed by Pakistanis themselves, so they export them. This is why Pakistan exports more mangoes than India.
“Any mango lover will tell you there is no such thing as enough mangoes. The more you eat, the more you want. Mangoes are best eaten from buckets of water, one after another, like chimpanzees eat them. It's criminal to keep count. You can eat mangoes like there's no tomorrow only if they are good. If they taste and smell like mangoes do. What would Pakistanis know? Hence the exports.
“As part of their conspiracy to defame Indian mangoes, Pakistan has even begun exporting some Pakistani mangoes to India. Which makes you wonder where the Shiv Sena is when you really need them. How can India allow counterfeit Pakistani mangoes to destabilises the Indian faith in the king of fruits? If only we could demonetise mangoes to separate the fakes from the tax-paying ones.”
Pesh (Dwarf Palm): the Baloch Wonder Plant
The Baloch, also know the Balochi, Baluch or Baluchi, are an ethnic group that live primarily in the sandy plains, deserts and barren mountains of southeast Iran, southwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. The Baloch make a number of things from the pesh (dwarf palm), which grows in the mountains of Balochistan and put the Baloch wonder plant to a number of uses. Waheed Wahid, a Baloch, wrote in the Daily Times: “Pesh is really a blessing plant which is helpful for us in many ways of life....We Baloch of rural areas cut dwarf palm in mountains and put it on the open ground to make it, and later bring it the aid of camels to villages, where we use it to build huts, kitchens and kapur, a kind of hut built in courtyards for shadow. The process of building kitchens, huts, and kapur is called ‘kumbband’ in the Balochi language. [Source: Waheed Wahid, Daily Times, June 27, 2019
Some of the things made from pesh — in the Balochi language — are cheluk, kacho, saptuk, teech, lauch, shahem, sawas, tagerd, mosulla, and kuula. “Cheluk is a kind of rope which is prepared from fresh pesh. It is used in making beds, huts, kitchens and many other things. The traditional Balochi shoes (sawas), prayer mats and regular mats are also being made of it. Kuula are the hats which we wear in sunny days. Shaeem, which villagers use for weighing things are, also produced of the dwarf palm.
“Brooms made of pesh are are used for cleaning homes. Luuchs are use for bringing crops or other plants from gardens for goats, cows, camels and other animals.” These animals also feed the products of the dwarf palm. Many more things we Baloch make from this plant aid us in Hamen...the season of dates. We put the dates on a gorpat to make them dry. The sundh is used to cover a hosh of dates to prevent them from falling down. A toree is a kind of hard and thick rope which assist us to climb into big date-palms.
“Moreover, the hand pan is used fanning ourselves. The heshkerani and tagar are made to throw stones on the birds which eat the wheat and oats we grow. Girls and women put their clothes which they are sewing on a product of dwarf palm — the katore. What people don’t know is that a large number of people are able to eat everyday because of the dwarf palm. They go to mountains with camels, cut the dwarf palms and sell it to the people of villages. The money they earn they use to run their houses and even to educate their children.”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (tourism.gov.pk), Official Gateway to the Government of Pakistan (pakistan.gov.pk), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022