Sugar prices have reached a record high of up to Rs160 per kilo in retail markets on Thursday. The hike in sugar prices was seen in different parts of the country as result of the “artificial shortage” allegedly created by sugar mill owners and traders.
According to media reports the sugar mill owners are using delaying tactics in the production of new stocks of the sweetener from sugarcane despite the fact that they are bound by the sugar act to start cane crushing maximum by the first week of November every year.
The reports revealed that “This is the fourth day (Thursday) of November and currently, not a single sugar mill is in operation in the country”.
Pakistan is going through an “artificial shortage” of sugar eventhough the mills have produced sugar in surplus. The wholesaler noted that the government imported sugar to keep up the supplies and stabilise the commodity’s price.
In Lahore, the wholesale market sells sugar at the price of Rs135 per kg. In the retail shops sugar is being sold at Rs140 per kg.
Meanwhile, in Peshawar, sack containing 50kg of sugar was sold at the price of Rs6,000 three days ago but it is now being sold at Rs7,100. The wholesale price of sugar stands at Rs140 per kg, its price in grocery stores has increased from Rs145 to Rs150 per kg.
Sugar is being sold at the price of Rs150 per kg in Balochistan.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in April estimated Pakistan’s sugar output at 6.8 million metric tons (MMT) in the ongoing marketing year 2021-22, higher by 14% from the last year’s revised estimate, owing to noteworthy increases in the area and sugarcane yields. USDA said,”Sugar consumption for the same (ongoing) year is forecast at 5.9 MMT, 3% higher than last year’s estimates”.
The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) informed PM Imran that banks were not giving them the loans needed to purchase sugarcane from farmers.
Currently, the famrers are producing cane worth Rs500 billion. But mill owners are battling liquidity crunch and banks are not giving them the credit they required. Billions of rupees are being borrowed every year by the owners to pay growers and to produce sugar, as reported by the PSMA.
Unconfirmed reports are circulating in the market that a ship loaded with sugar will be arriving at Port Qasim in Pakistan. It is expected to arrive on Saturday. “We are selling sugar at Rs100 per kilo for December in the wholesale market,” the wholesaler noted.
The price is projected to decrease in December as mills will be providing new stock of sugar in large quantities in the market during that time, he said.
