Cabinet panel reverses raw sugar import plan

The decision was taken by a six-member ministerial committee set up by the Economic Coordination Committee.

ISLAMABAD: A cabinet panel on Monday reversed a plan to import 500,000 metric tons of raw sugar amid depleting stocks and escalating prices of the commodity.

The decision was taken by none other than a six-member ministerial committee set up by the Economic Coordination Committee to ensure smooth supply of sugar in the market. Last month, the same ministerial committee recommended importing 500,000 metric tons of raw sugar before the start of the crushing season. The committee is headed by Industries and Production Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani.

Though within a month of taking the decision to import raw sugar before November,  the ministerial committee  found out on Monday that it “was too late to source raw sugar at the beginning of the crushing season since it would take 80 days to import it from Brazil”.

The panel observed that raw sugar could either be imported at the beginning or at the end of the crushing season. “The best option would be to make a decision in the month of December about the quantum of raw sugar import at the end of the crushing season,” it added.

The best decision, it argued, can only be taken when the effect of floods on the sugarcane crop is clearer. Flash floods have damaged sugarcane crops in some places while other areas are likely to have greater sucrose recovery so the final sugar yield may stay unaffected.

This is the second such u-turn by the ministerial committee, and will probably have a direct bearing on consumers. Earlier, it had found that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan was responsible for the delay in the import of 1.2 million metric tons of sugar till June. Yet within a fortnight it suggested relying on the same TCP for the import of the commodity.

The committee will present its report to the ECC for the final decisions related to raw sugar import.

Sugar prices in the open market have jumped to over Rs73 per kilogram and the government has announced that the commodity would be sold at the utility stores for Rs55 per kg during Ramazan. After Ramazan, however, its price would fall by Rs10 at government-owned stores as opposed to the open market. So far, it has not been able to arrest the rising trend.

A sugar dealer has predicted that the commodity rates would touch Rs90 per kg very soon, as its stock was depleting. The country has slightly over two months stock and there are apprehensions that the crushing season may not start this year in November due to the devastating floods.

“The government job is good governance not to import sugar,” said Pakistan Sugar Mills Association president Iskandar Khan. The business of importing sugar should be left to the private sector so that there is no hoarding or cartelisation, according to Iskandar Khan.

The ministerial committee also decided that that from the next season, the TCP will not be used to import sugar. It decided to leave the job to the private sector. The meeting agreed to continue with the import of the planned 1.2 million metric tons refined sugar.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2010.