Sugar prices soar to Rs210 a kilo as govt intervention awaited

ISLAMABAD: The government appears to have abandoned efforts to contain sugar prices, giving profiteers a free hand as retail rates surged to a record Rs210 per kilogram — up Rs10 in just one week — despite repeated pledges to stabilise the market.

Official data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed that Peshawar recorded the steepest increase, with sugar selling for Rs210 per kilo, the highest in the country. Prices also climbed to Rs200 per kilo in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, and Bannu, while in Karachi, consumers paid as much as Rs195 per kilo.

The average retail price of sugar jumped Rs3.77 week-on-week to Rs188.81 per kilogram, compared to Rs185.04 last week. A year earlier, the same commodity averaged Rs134.08 per kilo, marking a staggering 41 percent increase over 12 months.

Experts estimate that every Re1 increase in sugar prices costs Pakistani consumers Rs4–5 billion collectively, underscoring the heavy burden on households already squeezed by inflation.

Despite these sharp increases, no federal official or institution — neither the Food Ministry, sugar industry regulators, nor Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar — has taken meaningful action in recent months. Once vocal on the issue, Dar has gone silent after his earlier price-control directives were ignored.

On March 18, 2025, Dar announced retail price cap of Rs164 per kilo, with the ex-mill rate below Rs159, but the order was flouted as prices never fell below Rs180. Instead, they continued

to climb, breaching Rs200 per kilo.

In July 2025, the government even raised the ex-mill sugar price by Rs6 to Rs165, hoping to stabilize the market — a move that only emboldened producers.