Punjab Sugarcane Area Up 16% as Crushing Season BeginsPakistan

Official sources said sugarcane had been cultivated on 2.452 million acres across Punjab this year, marking a 16 per cent increase compared with the area cultivated last year. The rise continues a trend of expanding cane area in the province, where growers have increasingly turned to sugarcane as a cash crop.

The figures match official estimates reported last month. A document of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, reported by INP-Wealth Pakistan on 29 October, put the increase in Punjab’s sugarcane area at 15.9 per cent, to 992,000 hectares, which is equal to about 2.451 million acres. The same document estimated Punjab’s sugarcane production would rise by 11.8 per cent to 73.756 million tonnes.

At the national level, Pakistan’s sugarcane production is provisionally estimated to increase by 8.8 per cent to 97.29 million tonnes in 2026-27, compared with 89.45 million tonnes in the previous year, as the area under cultivation expands by 11.2 per cent, according to the ministry document. The Federal Committee on Agriculture had set a target of 1.147 million hectares for sugarcane cultivation, and the provisional estimates show the cultivated area exceeded that target by 18.5 per cent.

The start of crushing had been a pressing demand from growers. Pakistan Kissan Ittehad had demanded that the government start the 2026-27 crushing season by 10 November and fix the cane price at no less than Rs700 per maund, saying production costs had reached Rs550 a maund. Growers received an average of Rs460 per maund last season, according to provincial officials.

Under the Punjab Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, mills must start crushing by a date set by the government, and no later than 30 November. Last season, Punjab ordered mills to start by 15 November. This year, the notification brings the season into operation from 15 November, in line with that timetable.

The pricing arrangement is also changing. The federal government is moving to deregulate the sugar sector, including abolishing the official price-fixing mechanism and handing import and export decisions to the market. Under the new notification, mills will determine cane prices under market forces, a shift growers’ representatives have watched closely because of concerns about timely payments.

With the crushing season now under way, mills across the province are expected to begin buying cane from growers in the coming days. The larger crop, estimated at about 60 million tons of cane from Punjab this year, is expected to produce around 4.8 million tons of sugar, according to earlier estimates reported by INP-Wealth Pakistan.