The state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has purchased 75,000 tonnes of white sugar at $509 per tonne C&F Karachi, a company spokesman said on Saturday. Spokesman Ahmed Brohi said the TCP has bought sugar from two foreign suppliers.
"We have bought 50,000 tonnes from an Indian supplier and 25,000 tonnes from a Singaporean supplier," Brohi told Reuters. The TCP issued the import tender on April 27. The suppliers were expected to deliver the shipment within four weeks of the opening of letters of credit(L/C).
"The Indian firm had initially offered to supply sugar at $510 a tonne, but we were able to bring them a dollar lower," Brohi added. He said the Singapore-based supplier was the second lowest bidder and it also agreed to match the lowest bid price.
Last week, the TCP purchased 50,000 tonnes of white sugar at $523 per tone C&F Karachi from Dubai-based Al Khaleej Sugar Company. The Corporation has been regularly buying sugar from the international market after a government estimate that Pakistan would need at least 800,000 tonnes of imported sugar in 2006 to meet domestic demand. The country's sugar output has declined to 2.6 million tonnes this production year, as farmers switched to crops with higher returns, from 3.2 million tonnes the previous year. Pakistan's annual consumption is 3.8 million tonnes.
Earlier this week, the Corporation issued another tender for the import of a similar quantity of sugar from world-wide sources. That tender will be opened on May 19.
The TCP bought a total of 325,000 tonnes of refined sugar in earlier tenders.
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