A sugar crisis is in the making, which may increase the price of the commodity to over Rs100 per kilogramme, The Express Tribune has learned.
A State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) representative in a meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) held at the Ministry of Industries on Saturday said that the stock of 1.037 million tons of sugar had been pledged against loans.
“But sugar mills only have 750,000 tons of sugar against the pledged stock of 1.037 million tons,” one source in the sugar industry said, adding that the rest of the pledged stock existed only on paper.
The representative said that the ex-factory sugar price was Rs75 per kilogramme, which was likely to shoot up to over Rs90 per kilogramme.
Ministry of Industries Secretary Aziz Ahmad Bilour said there were sufficient stocks of sugar in the country to meet demand until the next crushing season.
Sindh, which is affected by the floods, said that its production of sugar might fall below the pre-floods estimates, as 30 per cent of the sugarcane-producing areas had been flooded.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2011.
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