KARACHI, Jan 8: With Muharram only 12 days away, millers and market players have joined hands to cash in on the situation by pushing up sugar rates to Rs29.50-Rs30 per kg on Monday from Rs28 per kg last week.
As prices have increased at the wholesale, retailers have started charging Rs31 per kg as against Rs29 being charged by them earlier.
Consumers appear to be the main loser in the game being played by market forces ahead of Muharram in which sugar demand is set to surge as people distribute sharbat (sweet drink) and sweet especially on the 9th and 10th of Muharram .
Chairman, Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association (KWGA), Anis Majeed, attributed the price-hike to suspension of cane-crushing by some millers last week which resulted in shortage of sugar in the market.
As many as 325,000 tons of sugar is consumed every month in the country. However, Mr Majeed said sugar consumption jumps to 450,000-475,000 tons during Muharram.
Market sources said in times of rising demand of sugar on religious occasions, a game of sale of delivery orders (DOs) gets under way. Market players make easy profits by selling DOs procured from the millers to others.
In the absence of any check on prices, hoarding of sugar begins to reap better profits on Muharram.
Chairman, Sindh Zone of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), Aslam Farooqui, told Dawn on Monday that the mills had suspended crushing due to multiple issues pending with the government.
“Now mills have resumed cane-crushing in Sindh from Monday and almost all the 28 mills are engaged in crushing cane,” he said.
When asked about the fall-out of suspension of cane crushing on sugar prices, he said he did not have any idea about the market, but said there was some price hike ranging between Rs 1.00-1.50 per kg.
He said that the PSMA was holding a meeting with the government on Friday, and was hopeful of resolution of millers’ pending issues. He added now cane-crushing would continue.
Meanwhile, the city government appears helpless as officials believe that sugar was a federal or provincial issue, and they cannot interfere. In Ramazan, the city government only pressures wholesalers to reveal stocks, but nobody turns up to disclose it.
