KARACHI, May 27: The state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on Saturday purchased 50,000 tons of white sugar at $489.25 per ton C&F Karachi, a company official said.

TCP director Abdul Malik said the corporation bought the sugar from Dubai-based Al-Khaleej Sugar Company.

TCP had issued the import tender on May 18.

Malik said the company had originally bid at a price of $489.75 a ton.

“But after negotiations, they agreed to cut the price by 50 cents a ton,” he said.

The suppliers were expected to deliver the shipments within four weeks of the opening of letters of credit.

Earlier in the day, the TCP issued another tender to import a similar quantity of refined sugar, with shipment due in July and bids to be submitted by June 3.

Only 18 pre-qualified foreign firms would be allowed to participate in the tender.

The TCP 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.

Before Saturday, the TCP had bought 715,000 tons of refined sugar from worldwide sources through nine previous tenders.

Pakistan’s sugar output has declined to 2.6 million tons this production year from 3.2 million tons the previous year, as farmers switched to crops with higher returns. The domestic annual consumption is 3.8 million tons.—Reuters