Sugar prices defy govt cap

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s retail sugar prices averaged Rs168.8 per kilogram over the past two weeks, overshooting the government’s ceiling of Rs164/kg despite official efforts to stabilise the market, according to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar chaired a high-level inter-ministerial meeting on Friday to address commodity price volatility and streamline supply chains. He reiterated the government’s commitment to structural reforms aimed at ensuring market stability and long-term economic resilience. The government had set the retail price ceiling at Rs164/kg and ex-mill rates below Rs159/kg on March 19. However, open market prices remain elevated, ranging between Rs170 and Rs180/kg. PBS figures show that the national average price of sugar has remained flat at Rs168.8/kg since March 27. Prices have risen sharply since late November, when sugar traded at Rs131.85/kg.

The surge comes despite pledges by sugar mills to maintain prices below Rs140/kg. Instead, domestic supply pressures intensified even as Pakistan exported 757,597 metric tons of sugar worth $407 million in the first seven months of the fiscal year. In January alone, sugar exports totaled 124,793 tons valued at $64.34 million.