CONVENTIONAL gur or jaggery production continues following decades-old practice without any formal business protocols.

The process remains informal and involves multiple issues. Still, its production seems to be recording an increasing trend in Sindh. This is evident from small, unregulated roadside units, known as `cheechras` in local parlance, that manufacture gur.

Such units have existed in upper Sindh for a long time, but their number has increased in the lower Sindh region as well. The sugarcane sector is regulated under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950 the legal instrument amended in 2009 by the provincial government. Still, it doesn`t regulate the jaggery business.

Another legal instrument called `The Gur Control Order 1948` was introduced after Pakistan`s inception and can be found online. Under this law, a `controller` is supposed to be appointed by the federal government whose jurisdiction extends to all provinces; alas, itsimplementation is unheard of.

`We are not aware of any implementation of this 1948 law, as it is the Sugar Factories Control Act that is in place to control the sugarcane crop and the sugarcane crushing season, as well as minimum price fixation by the government,` said Agha Zaheer Ahmed, a former Sindh cane commissioner. He said that initially, there used to be a zoning system for selling sugarcane crops, which was later abolished in the 80s.

A visit to Tando Allahyar, lower Sindh`s most fertile district and rich in sugarcane production, revealed that gur making is continuing under the same old practices by those associated directly or indirectly with the farm sector. During every sugarcane season, the roadside units emerge on the roadsides to work as sales and procurement points. Some exist in the more urban areas of these rural districts as well.

Like sugarcane crushing, gur production starts in October, when crushing enters its final stage in factories.

Crop crushing ends by early or mid-March. Sugarcane juice is extracted from this process in a small can, shifted to a large drum, and put into a big pan to boil. Once the juice residue separates from the liquid and is cooled, it becomes a solid and is rolled into the small familiar brown lumps of jaggery. Unfortunately, theefficiency of sucrose extraction is not ideal thanks to old practices.

`We crush around 100 maunds of sugarcane to produce 10 maunds of gur,` says Rehmatullah Arain, who has been associated with this business for the past decade. According to him, when the season begins,sucrose content in gur remains 10 per cent to 11pc. `Okra wood is used to clear impurities of sugarcane juice during the process besides the use of rang kat [a powder] to give it a whitish look,` Mr Arain said.

He adds that now adulteration is taking place in jaggery-making to sellit for a lesser rnarket price; instead of sugarcane, which is priced at Rs450475 per 40kg this year, some dealers use cheaper white sugar.

Waste from sugarcane is used to fire furnaces. The process, however, is hit by a noticeable lack of adherence to hygiene protocols, includingby the labourers. The whole process is exposed to contamination as well.

Furthermore, consumption has increased in urban centres, apparently due to people (non-diabetic) who prefer jaggery over white sugar for being less harmful.

Jaggery was sold at Rs200 per kilo even in rural areas in 2024-25. While in powder form (also known as shakkar and mithaee) it was sold for Rs240-250 per kg considerably higher than white sugar at Rs130 per kg. Urban market dealers point out that high-quality jaggery was sold for Rs160-150 per kilogram in bulk supplies; even hotels were selling gur tea from popular demand.

Abdul Majeed, whose family has been associated with the business since 1952 in the city`s oldest Tower Market area, informs that he depends on Punjab`s dealers for larger gur supplies as he sells the commodity in bulk. `Local gur producers can`t meet our demand as we sell 25kg bags at a time,` he said. He adds his trade margin in business deals with retailers and wholesalers. According to him,quality-wise grading of jaggery is attributable to the cleanliness of the product.

Jaggery making has never been a formal business in Pakistan, with the result that the process of extracting gur from the juice has remained unchanged for over half a century, according to a sugarcane producer and Sindh Abadgar Board president, Mahmood Nawaz Shah. `Extraction is achieved through the same old evaporation system, which leads to the crushing of two tonnes of sugarcane a day, but in India, the inline extraction is seen through a modernised and automated system,` he remarked.

Modernisation ensures a higher efficiency ratio in gur production, Mr Shah said. Below-par business practices, he argued, were largely due to the fact that the gur sector was overshadowed by the large-scale sugar industry worth Rs500bn and controlled by a few. `Not only gur but even smaller sugar factories with a few hundred tonnes of crushing capacity simply don`t exist,` he said. •