LAHORE, Sept 7: A consignment of 2,000 metric tons of white sugar arrived at the local railway station from India on Wednesday after Pakistan lifted a four-year ban on the import.

Sugar price in Pakistan had reached a sustained all-time high of Rs28 per kg, when the government decided to import duty-free sugar, also from India. A batch of livestock from India arrived on Tuesday following a thaw in political and trade relations between the two countries.

The importers think that the import could immediately bring down the price by at least Rs3 per kg. If such import became routine, the price could go down further, they said. About quality of sugar, an importer said that it looked better than the importers originally thought.

This was first consignment, ordered to check procedural hiccups, he said.

With the coming of Ramazan, the country is facing a shortage of sugar and the government has not only ordered release of 50,000 tons of sugar from its stocks but also allowed duty-free import by private sector.