May 25, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 26, 1427

KARACHI, May 24: Pakistan is likely to face a shortfall of around 900,000 tons of refined sugar in the production year starting November, making further buying from India probable, industry and trade officials said on Wednesday.

Zaka Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, said the shortfall next year was expected to be lower than this year’s 1.32 million tons, but would again leave the country searching for sugar in the world market.

Over half of Pakistan’s imports came from India following removal of a four-year ban on Indian sugar last year after an improvement in relations between the two neighbours.

“The output is expected to rise to between 3.0 million and 3.1 million tons from 2.58 million tons (a year earlier), but the domestic demand is also growing at a fast pace,” Mr Ashraf told Reuters by telephone from Lahore.

Industry officials say domestic demand will be around four million tons in the next production season, up from current 3.8 million tons.

Sugar demand is rising in Pakistan, due to rapid population growth, and in neighbouring Afghanistan, from where it is smuggled to Central Asia.

Mr Ashraf said the sugarcane crop next year is expected to touch 50 million tons as the area under cultivation has risen by 8.7 per cent to around one million hectares (2.5 million acres).

This, he said, would result in an increase in refined sugar output next season.

Pakistan’s 13-month-long sugarcane season starts in February and ends in March the following year. The harvest fell last season to 44 million tons.

But last year, sugarcane became the most profitable crop in the country, as shortages pushed prices to an all-time high of Rs120 per 40 kg, almost double the government’s fixed price.—Reuters