There will be no shortage of sugar in Pakistan in coming days because local sugar mills will produce around 3.8 million tons of sugar during current crushing season, which is 0.2 million tons higher than 3.6 million tons produced last year and almost 0.5 million tons less than the total requirement of 4.3 million tons, sources said here on Tuesday.
According to the sources, people of the country had minimised the consumption of sugar by 0.2 million since the prices of sugar had gone up significantly. Sources in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture revealed that Chairman Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) Javed Kiyani had suggested at the recent meeting that it would again hold a review meeting in February to discuss the matter as sugar production estimates would be much cleared at that time. In the light of that meeting the future course of action would be taken for sugar, Kiyani said. If the government will import sugar at this point of time for strategic reserves it may not be beneficial as till February actual sugar production size will come and shortfall would also be cleared, he said.
In such a scenario, the government would be able to take proper decision on the issue of import of sugar, which will also be helpful for the government to earn foreign exchange. Sources said that the meeting also asked the PSMA viewpoint over the import of raw sugar as the government had already waived import duty on raw sugar. The PSMA chairman informed the meeting that it is not viable for the industry to import raw sugar at this point of time when it reached its highest level in the global market.
The prices of raw sugar at that time touched $0.33 per pound, while for the industry it is only viable when the price is in the range of $0.17 to $0.20 per pound, he said. The sources said that Gondal was convinced with the PSMA chief's proposal. However, no decision regarding the next meeting was made, they said. When contacted, the PSMA chairman said that according to the industry's estimates almost 3.8 million tons of sugar to be this year. The mills have started the crushing sugar cane but had not picked up momentum as yet due to shortage of labour and Eid holidays.
Similarly, so far harvesting of sugarcane crop is also slow as the farmers are also waiting for the start of the crushing season and now they would also gear up with the mills. He said that by the end of this week all the sugar mills would start sugar production in the country as almost majority of the mills had already lit up their boilers in their respective mills. About raw sugar, he said, if the price would come down in the range of $0.17 to $0.20 per pound then the industry would definitely import it, otherwise it would not be financially feasible for the industry. Kiyani pointed out that the prices of raw sugar had already started declining and reached $0.26 per pound during the last 10 days.
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