ISLAMABAD: The Sugar Advisory Board (SAB), on Tuesday, following permission by the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved export of up to 40,000 tons of sugar to Tajikistan on government-to-government basis.
The SAB meeting was chaired by the Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Rana Tanveer Hussain, which following a permission by ECC has allowed exporting 40,000 metric tons of sugar to Tajikistan.
The ministry has also directed the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) to clear outstanding payments of the sugarcane growers at the earliest. It was further decided that locally, the district governments will fix the retail price of sugar.
Once again, PSMA urges govt to allow export of ‘surplus’ sugar
The meeting was told that currently, Pakistan has 2.8 million ton of stocks in storage.
On August 1, 2024, during a meeting of the SAB which recommended sugar exported to Tajikistan, the ministry decided to present updates on the sugar industry to ECC for a decision regarding the sugar export.
The minister also noted that the SAB recommended increasing the export period from 45 to 60 days.
During the meeting, representatives of the PSMA stated that there had been no increase in the ex-mills price of sugar and it had nothing to do with the retail price of the commodity.
The sugar industry urged the government to take steps to maintain the retail price, saying that the association has nothing to do with the fixation of retail sugar price.
The PSMA reported that there has been no increase in the ex-mill price of sugar. They clarified that the retail price of sugar is unaffected by this change and urged the government to take measures to maintain retail prices.
Previously in June 2024, the government has conditionally approved the export of 150,000 metric tons of sugar, mandating the PSMA to maintain adequate local stocks to ensure stable domestic supply and prices.
Notably, in January 2023, the coalition government of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), permitted export of 250,000 tons of sugar based on projections suggesting a surplus. That decision backfired as domestic prices jumped up from Rs100 per kg to Rs220 per kg by August 2023 in various parts of the country and Rs170-19 in major urban centres. By late August, the caretaker government revealed that national sugar reserves had plummeted to 2.3 million metric tons, insufficient to meet demand until the next crushing season.
This disclosure raised alarms about the potential misreporting of sugar production and consumption figures by both the industry and the previous government, further complicating the export narrative. Consequently, sugar exports were banned, and the sugar producers’ appeals for resumption faced outright rejection until the cane-crushing season concluded in March 2024.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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