LAHORE, Feb 14: The first consignment of 19,360 tons of sugar arrived here on Tuesday from India, which might relieve some supply pressure but would not help in reducing the commodity’s price.

Sugar Dealers Association’s Asghar Butt said that a private group had imported sugar from India at a price of $440 per ton, which translated to a local price of Rs32.25 per kg.

The importer would include incidental charges and some profit in the retail price because of which the sugar price would not be less than Rs34-35 in the open market.

Meanwhile, sugar price in the international market rose to $480, amounting to Rs34 per kg in local price, he said. It showed that sugar price would go below Rs35 in the open market, even after the import of inferior quality Indian sugar.

The local price of sugar started sliding from Rs38 per kg ex-mill price three days ago to Rs36.5 per kg. The slide has continued and the local price for sugar might soon be hovering around Rs35 per kg. But import from India had set the price benchmark, which meant that price would not fall bellow Rs35 per kg.

The phenomenon was attributed to the linking domestic sugar price with the international market, another dealer said. Any fluctuation in the international market would automatically be reflected in the local market, like petrol prices. The government, he said, had been warned about an imminent sugar shortage but it acted too late.