Worst sugar crisis imminent: emergency meeting on September 16

The country may face worst sugar crisis in coming days as the local sugar stocks, lying with mills across the country, has completely exhausted, it is reliably learnt. The Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P), the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa) and the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) have called an emergency meeting on September 16 for devising a strategy to meet crisis.
The meeting would review the current situation, sugar stock lying with both sugar mills and Trading Corporation of Pakistan and import of the commodity. Officials in Pakistan Sugar Mills Association told Business Recorder that sugar mills across the country have completely exhausted and there would be no sugar available in the local market from next month. The association would also hold an emergency meeting shortly to review the situation, they added.
They said the sugar stock in the TCP godowns is only sufficient for this month. Two ships carrying 25,000 MT and 23,791 MT of sugar reached Port Qasim during the first week of this month while 150,000 MT of sugar is expected to arrive in the country by the end of this month, they said, adding that a total 48,791 arrived in September and rest of the sugar would arrive, shortly. They said there is total 225,000 MT of sugar in the TCP godowns, which is only sufficient for 20 days. Monthly consumption of the commodity in the country is 350,000 MT. The shortage of sugar can also result in escalation of its prices, they feared.
They said the sugar millers had advised the federal government to import 0.5 million tonnes duty-free raw sugar to avert crisis, but they failed to respond to our reservations. To a question, they said they have no idea about the meeting of MoI&P, MoC and Minfa representatives on September 16.
Criticising the government approach towards a serious issue, Iskandar M Khan, Chairman, PSMA said the government had not called sugar millers, an important stakeholder, in the meeting on September 16. The millers were crying for timely import of required sugar, but all in-vain, he added. He said sugar stock with mills of the country has been exhausted and the association has also called an emergency meeting to review the current situation.