MoF informs ECC: Country has 2.851mn metric tons of sugar stocks

ASMA RAZAQ

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance has informed the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet that total sugar stocks in the country are 2.851 million metric tons in the first week of March 2012, higher by 12.68 percent from the 2.530 million metric tons for the same period of last year.

Sources told Business Recorder that the Finance Ministry informed the ECC in a briefing on current commodity stock situation that sugar stocks with the provinces stood at 2.825 million metric tons in March 12, compared to 2.084 million metric tons for the same period of last year.

The committee was told that the sugar stocks available with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) are 26,000 tons in the first week of March while these stocks were 0.44 million tons in the same period of 2010-11.

ECC was told by the Finance Ministry that as per approval of the Committee, imports of 1.2 million tons of urea (total stocks of urea are expected to be 1.03 million tons by June, 2012) and one million tons of wheat (0.9 million tons at Gwadar port and 63,000 at Port Qasim) have arrived.

The Ministry of Finance informed the ECC that the wheat stocks available in the country in the first week of March are 4.909 million tons while these stocks were around 4.920 million tons in the same period last year.

The wheat stocks available in Punjab are 2.6 million tons that are 21 percent less than the stocks available in the province during the corresponding period of last year.

The total wheat stocks available with Sindh are 0.29 million tons while these were 0.21 million tons in March, 2011. Similarly wheat stocks available with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are 0.15 million tons against 0.14 million tons in the same period last year. ECC was told by the Finance Ministry that wheat stocks, available with Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) in the first week of March, are 1.7 million tons while these were 1.0 million tons in March, 2011 showing an increase of 41 percent.