ISLAMABAD: Despite hectic efforts made by sugar millers, the government has decided in principle not to allow the export of sugar, keeping in view the possibility of escalating prices of the sweetener in domestic market.
Before a summary could be moved to the ECC, the prices of sugar in domestic market have witnessed an upsurge, so the government has conveyed in principle that permission to allow sugar exports would not be granted. It was feared that if the export of sugar was allowed, the prices might escalate up to Rs25 per kg in the local market. Earlier, the sugar industry had started lobbying for permission of the government to export one million tonnes of sweetener from Pakistan.
The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) wrote a letter to Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal and requested him that the government may take a timely decision in the national interest to allow the export of sugar in two tranches of 0.5 MMT each on quota basis as was done in January 2023. Afghanistan and Central Asian countries are importing expensive sugar from India while due to low freight Pakistan has competitive advantage in getting feasible import contracts from these countries.
In the past when sugar was exported, it was made sure that the prices of sugar in the domestic market would not escalate but a few years back the prices went up locally.
Now the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has stated that the sugar industry is second largest agro-based industry of Pakistan after textiles. It generates direct and indirect business activity of Rs800 billion to Rs1,000 billion annually in agriculture, transport, allied industries, wholesale and retail markets. It pays around Rs125 billion in direct and indirect taxes to the federal, provincial and local governments and provides direct employment to 1.5 million people and renders 5 billion USD worth of import substitution to our national economy, the PSMA said.
The PSMA claimed surplus sugar production has been achieved at the end of crushing season 2023-24 and total available sugar in the current year was 7.5 MMT against an annual consumption demand of 6.00 MMT, having a surplus of 1.5 MMT.
