'No sugar strategic reserve with TCP by 2011-end'

The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has been informed that there would be no strategic reserves of sugar with Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) by the end of 2011. Sources said that TCP in its letter dated August 18, 2011, had informed the ECC that it had total stock of sugar at 231,313 tons with the delivery commitment of around 28,000 tons to Utility Store Corporation (USC) for August 2011.
The remaining balance of 200,000 tons sugar would be sufficient to meet the three months' requirement before crushing season starts. The stock of imported sugar with TCP will exhaust and the government will have no strategic reserve for next year, or for any unforeseen requirement, for market intervention.
The TCP stated that the Ministry of Industries should submit firmed up position of sugar stocks in September/October 2011 for consideration of the ECC, keeping in view that the stock of local production and actual requirement for the remaining period of the year. The meeting was informed that the estimated sugar production for 2011-12 is around 4.12 million tons, and projected sugar demand is 4.5 million tons.
The ECC was also informed that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, total area under cultivation of sugarcane crop is 95,800 hectares. The estimates of sugar production for the year 2011-12 in the province was 275,655 tons against the consumption 720,598 tons, reflecting a shortfall of 444,943 tons. In Punjab, area under cultivation of sugarcane crop is 754,000 hectares with an estimated sugarcane production of 42.05 million tons in 2011-12. For year 2011-12, area under cultivation in Sindh is 0.26 million hectares while sugarcane production is estimated at 10.78 million tons, subject to confirmation after flood water recedes in Sindh.
The issue of average actual sugar consumption of last 3 years being 21.5 kg per person per year and projecting sugar demand 25 kg per person per year bench mark being used was also discussed by the Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) on 17-09-2011. It was unanimously agreed that while projecting annual sugar consumption figures, it was prudent to take the peak months figure as standard consumption. The gap of 0.372 million tons was estimated for 2011-12 on the basis of projected sugarcane production of 53.89 million tons by the Suparco after calculating 25 kg per head consumption at the population of 179.8 millions.