regarding boycott of sugear if you think the prices are high then dont buy it and so it does not mean that you go on blaming the mill owners or the retailers. pakistan is a free economy state so u cant control the prices its against the law and there are no ethics in doing this.the government has fixed the price of sugar. how can they do this? if the sugarcane prices are high then obviously sugar prices will increase. how can u ask the mill owners to sell sugar at prices which someone else fixes.by doing this the mill owners will incur loss and so this will lead to closure of mills which means huge amount of job losses and farmers with crops which no one will buy.. and keep in mind majority of pakistan population are farmers who will have cops which no one will buy. and also if sugarprices rise then it means sugarcane prices were high aswell meaning farmers are also enjoying good profit who are majority of pakistan. the production of sugar was very low and so there is a crises.its not cuz of hoarders mill owners etc.daily consumption is 12000 tons which is 240000 bags and they show on tv that government confiscated 2000 bags. what is this its all bshit.2000 bags is nothing imagine 240000 bags daily consumption. who will invest if gment fix sugar prices which will ultimately incur loss to mill owners who will shut their mills.who will run the mills. the government is incapable of doing so cuz all their mills have been bankrupt longtime ago and so were privatised.ary campaign was going on their food channel that in a cooking show i was watching they boycott sugar and later on guess what i saw….their SPONSER WAS COKE which consumes 150000tons of sugar every year.this is just coke pepsi has more consumption. if u boycot sugar then boycot all cold drinks sweets chocolate etc i can go on and on…and what will happen if you boycott everything..millions of people working in those sectors will loose their jobs for example sugar mill employs 1000 workers and buy crop from millions of farmers.. who will cater for the poor workers who are supporting their families… all news channels are blackmailers they dont even research they just what sells.

Omer,

free economy doesnt always work as its supposed to. In Ideal world, govt will not be involved in free market at all. But price gouging, black marketing etc cripple the free markets. But govt. intervention is also not a good solution considering how inept and corrupt the govt is.

My roots are in a village where sugarcane is the primary crop. From my experience in India, the increase in the price of sugar doesn’t always materialize in equal increase in price of sugar cane. Most of the money is made by layers of middlemen.

One solution would to open the markets and import some cheap sugar.
Other solution could also be to follow a public distribution system where poor people get subsidized sugar.

The ad campaign is probably not aiming at the right solution but it is managing to highlight the problem. Of course boycotting is a dumb solution but you cant deny that the problem doesnt exist.

amit,
thanks for reply..im deeply involved with sugar industry in pakistan and i agree that there are many factors which effect the price of sugar.its not necessary that its allways cane price that effects the sugar price..it could be the recovery qty of cane crushed etc.and ur also right when there is a cane price war between the mill owners alot of middlemen take the profit..but what i mean is that this season was v good for the growers and mill owners in pakistan so both benefited.but when the mill owners started to benefit when the sugar was rising the government froze godowns and forced mill owners to sell suger at below cost levels..THIS IS NOT RIGHT. no one would invest and secondly if they wanted to bring prices down then the ethicle way is to import sugar to fill the supply demand gap….i also agree that there should be a control on sugar price but the problem is whose gonna define what is the right price????? if mill owners say cost is 42 then i dont think 40 is the right price it should be atleast 47.. calculating cost is very easy for sugar mills…also amit the government is harrasing mill owners which is not right.mill owners are to make profit like any other man.and in sugar its only the mill owners who give taxes each mill giving not less than 250 million..its not a joke…and all these media people dont even research thats really heartbreaking u no…media is corrupt as government…also in pakistan most of the growers get paid in time..its a media hike that they dont get paid…its only the middlemen which the mill owners dont pay in time cuz they play with the cane price…the solution of the problem is to import sugar..GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE DONE IT BEFORE..at the start even mill owners told them that there will be a shortage but they put an import duty at the beginning of season starting dec 08 and then they lifted it when it was too late…and trust me the fact is there was a million ton shortage in production comparing to consumption of 4.2 million tons prod was 3.2 million tons and if you add op stock still 350k tons defecit which is alot cuz there also has to be op stk for next season…my whole point is that mill owners are tax payers employing thousands of people giving them good salary bonuses and so they should not be harrased..

thanks for the insight omer! you obviously know a great deal about this issue… one thing i find hard to believe is that sugar mil owners are poor folks getting pressed by govt. I have traveled the world and I have seen that private cos are very resourceful in making profits… spl in south east asia where govts are so corrupt, they pretty much bribe the govt and get whatever they want (except when its the election year!).
In any case… the state of pakistani leadership is so bad that I really feel bad for common man… nobody gives a shit!

amit,
sugar mill owners are not poor folks i know…i know someone who put up a mill with 100% genuine foreign investment..HIS OWN HARD WORKED MONEY FROM UK. hes one of the biggest mill owners now government and all news after him…wouldnt he feel bad that he gave his everything to his country by putting sugar mill and changed the trend by making cash payment to growers..helping people in that area with free medical..so i mean its ridiculous to blame that man who is totally not government… politicians also own sugar mill but they dont give a shit cuz it wasnt their money cuz of corruption they put sugar mills… the government is pathetic and so the media but people cant understand…