ISLAMABAD, July 17: The average retail price of sugar has crawled up to Rs35 per kg from Rs29 per kg during the last few weeks. Currently, the retail prices of the sweetener is hovering between Rs28-36 per kg in major cities despite the sugar cartel’s promise to keep it below Rs34 per kg following imposition of 15pc regulatory duty on its import to protect the local millers.
Informed sources told Dawn on Tuesday the government’s decision not to release its stock of imported sugar to oblige powerful millers’ lobby was one of the prime reasons behind the surge in the sweetener’s prices.
Figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Tuesday showed that the average maximum price of sugar was Rs35 per kg in Islamabad, Rs32 in Rawalpindi, Rs32 in Peshawar and Rs36 in Lahore and Quetta.
It was unchanged at Rs30 in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Bahawalpur and Karachi. While it stood at Rs29 in Multan, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Bannu. However, it was being retailed at Rs28 in Khuzdar, Larkana and Sargodha.
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association Vice-Chairman Zaka Ashraf told Dawn on Tuesday that the ex-factory price should be raised to Rs31 per kg from the prevailing Rs28 per kg from the next crushing season.
He said that the government did not handle the situation properly creating problems for the sugar industry.
“The government should also support minimum sugar price in the market as it has done in case of cane producers,” he suggested.
The available sugar stock in the country stood at 1.4 million, which he said would be sufficient for meeting consumption demand by end of November 2007. This figure did not include the imported sugar stock available with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), he added.
