Five million tonnes sugar expected from new crop: Pakistan to start cane crushing; imports unlikely

Sugar mills will start crushing cane from the new crop this week, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) said on Monday, reducing the chances of imports as a bumper harvest looms. The association (PSMA) expects nearly 5 million tonnes of sugar from the new crop, with the country still holding about 700,000 tonnes in stocks, including about 150,000 tonnes from 2010 imports.
"We are expecting a 60-million-tonne sugarcane crop, of which mills will likely crush 54 million tonnes and are expected to produce 5 million tonnes of refined sugar," PSMA chairman Javed Kayani told Reuters. Annual consumption is about 4.2 million tonnes.
"There is no chance of imports as we will have a surplus in the next season and there is still stock available from the previous season," he said. Crushing will start in the main sugar-growing province of Punjab by the weekend and in Sindh a week later where farmers still had problems with floodwaters after a heavy monsoon rainfall in August and September.
Pakistan's government last month decided to import 100,000 tonnes of refined sugar to beef up reserves, without setting a timetable. But a tender by the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) early this month to purchase 200,000 tonnes of sugar from local mills, and promises of more supplies by PSMA may reverse the decision to import.
Kayani said mills intend to sell another 200,000 tonnes of surplus refined sugar to the government over January to February, and another 300,000 tonnes around mid-April, at the end of crushing season. He expects the government to approve the tender which, he said, would help millers make payments to farmers and ensure smooth crushing.
A TCP official said a total of 32 bids for the sale of 215,000 tonnes of sugar had been received against the tender opened on Saturday in a price range of 65,000 rupees ($750.058) and 66,000 rupees, and a decision on bids was likely this week. Kayani, however, said Pakistani sugar would still be cheaper than the landing cost of imported sugar. An official at the Ministry of Industries, that oversees sugar supply and demand, said a decision on whether to import sugar was not likely before April.