KARACHI, Oct 21: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has received bids for 62,000 tons of sugar as against its offer for 42,000 tons mainly because of sugar millers' insistence on the government to increase sugar retail price to Rs20 a kg.
Traders and retailers were earlier reluctant to pick up sugar from the TCP and had not responded to an earlier tender for 50,000 tons. Then only the Utility Stores Corporation has asked for 8,000 tons.
The TCP offered 42,000 tons from the 50,000 tons for bids and was not expecting an enthusiastic response. But after the demand of All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) to raise the sugar price to Rs20 a kg, the traders and retailers made a beeline to the TCP and gave their bids on Tuesday.
"We will give only 42,000 tons of sugar", TCP Chairman Syed Masood Alam Rizvi told Dawn on Thursday. He said that a system is being worked out to provide sugar to the successful bidders.
The TCP chairman said that he would like to maintain the 412,000 tons of sugar stock that he has purchased last year and this year from the sugar mills as he fears sugar production this season may fall short of demand.
His expectation is that there would be hardly 3 million to 3.2 million tons of sugar production this season as against domestic demand of 3.6 million tons. Sugar consumption increases during Ramazan and after Eid with the start of marriage season.
Sugarcane production in the country is expected to come down to 45 million tons this season mainly because the millers high-handedness and exploitation of the growers. In 2003-04 sugarcane was grown on over one million hectares. But this season sugarcane has been sown on hardly 950,000 hectares. Farmers have reduced sugarcane cultivation areas in all the three provinces - Sindh, Punjab and the NWFP. The per acre yield of sugarcane is also expected to remain lower than that of last year.
Sugarcane growers are blaming the millers this season also for deliberately delaying the crushing so that sugarcane loses fructose content and grower gets less money.
The Sindh Food and Agricultural Minister Arif Jatoi said on Thursday that 26 out of 28 sugar mills have fired their boilers and crushing would begin in next two weeks. Only two mills could not go along with the commissioning because of technical problems which would be solved in a day or two.