KARACHI, Aug 19: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan said on Friday it had extended the deadline for bids into its purchase tender for 50,000 tons of white sugar to August 22 from August 20.

“An extension has been allowed to facilitate the bidders,” TCP Chairman Masood Alam Rizvi told Reuters. He said the decision to delay the bidding was made after a meeting with suppliers.

The bids would be opened after the 1100 GMT deadline, with shipment due in September.

The TCP announced the tender for the import of white sugar on Aug 14 as part of its plans to import 200,000 tons of sugar after domestic production fell to between 3.1m tons and 3.2m tons due to a small sugar cane crop.

Pakistan had planned to beef up stocks from the import before the fasting month of Ramazan, expected to start in early October, to check runaway domestic prices.

Pakistan has been buying sugar from international markets since January to cover a production shortfall and apart from the TCP purchases, the private Pakistani traders have also finalized deals to import more than 500,000 tons of sugar.

The TCP purchased 100,000 tons and 25,000 tons of white sugar from Al Khaleej Sugar Refinery at $366 and $390 a ton, respectively, through two tenders issued during the last four weeks.

Meanwhile, Mr Rizvi said another tender to buy 25,000 tons of duty-free refined sugar had been issued by the TCP on Friday and a deadline for submission of bid offers was Aug 24.—Reuters