KARACHI, April 15: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on Saturday bought 75,000 tons of white sugar at $491 per ton C&F Karachi, a company official said.

“We have bought 50,000 tons from India and another 25,000 tons from a Singapore-based firm,” said Abdul Malick, director TCP said. “Both the deals were finalised at $491 per ton each.”

The TCP had issued the import tender on April 7. It tendered to buy 50,000 tons of sugar, but Malick said the prices offered by the Indian and Singaporean suppliers were “too attractive to resist.”

Malick said both the suppliers would complete shipments within four weeks after the opening of letter of credit.

The corporation has been regularly buying sugar from the international market after a government estimate that the country would need at least 800,000 tons of imports in 2006 to meet domestic demand.

On Friday, the corporation had issued another tender for the import of a similar quantity of sugar from worldwide sources. The tender will be opened on April 22.

Pakistan’s sugar output has declined to 2.8 million tons this production year, as farmers switched to crops with higher returns, from 3.2 million tons the previous year. Pakistan’s annual consumption is 3.8 million tons.

Earlier this week, the TCP bought 50,000 tons of white sugar at $505 per ton C&F Karachi from Swiss-based Cargill International.—Reuters