ISLAMABAD: The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) has been informed that sugar prices in Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Quetta are on higher side compared to other cities of the country.

The weekly meeting of the price monitoring committee presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin held on 2-2-2022 was informed that total sugar crushed by the end of January 2022 was 39.30 million metric tons with sugarcane crushed was 27.912 million metric tons in Punjab on 20-1-2022, followed by 9.633 million metric tons in Sindh on 31-01-2022, and 1.845 metric tons in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on 24-01-2022, thereby, making the total crushing stock.

The meeting was further informed that new sugar produced during the period under review was 3.602 million metric tons with 2.518 metric tons in Punjab, 0.905 metric tons in Sindh, and 0.179 in the KP, whereas, carryover stocks of 2020-21 was 0.049 metric tons – 0.030 million metric tons in the Punjab, 0.014million metric tons in Sindh, and 0.005 million metric tons in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, making the total sugar stock available on 31-01-2022 was 2.548million metric tons in Punjab, 0.919 million metric tons in Sindh on 31-10-2022, and 0.184 million metric tons in KP on 24-01 2022, thus, bringing the total new and old stocks to 3.651 million metric tons.

The participants of the meeting were informed that sugar off take was 2.390 million metric tons by the end of January 2022 with 0.954 million metric tons by Punjab, followed by 0.248 million metric tons by Sindh, and 0.057 million metric tons by the KP.

Balance at mills was 2.390 million metric tons during the period under review with 1.593 million metric tons in Punjab, 0.671 million metric tons in Sindh, and 0.126 million metric tons in the KP. The NPMC was further told that the crushing is in process till March 2022 depending on availability of sugarcane.

The price monitoring committee was also informed that wheat sowing target has been that Punjab has revised their wheat sowing targets of 16.779 million acres as reported during the meeting held on 27-01-2022 and approved the previous target of 16.210 million acres, as was fixed in the federal committee on agriculture (FCA) meeting held on 07-10-2021.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022