KARACHI: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has sold another 6,000 tons of sugar in the open market through a tender.
According to an official release issued by TCP on Friday, “TCP received bids from 14 different parties from all over the country” and “the highest price offered was Rs64,550 per ton, which was below landed cost.”
A TCP official explained that the average landed cost of the sweetener was Rs65,000 per ton for the corporation, adding that all bidders were contacted and offered sugar stocks if they were to revise their offers to match this landed cost.
“Four bidders agreed to match the price,” declared the official release, adding that 6,000 tons of the commodity have been awarded to these parties.
The official spokesperson for TCP also revealed that “about 6,000 tons of sugar were supplied to the Punjab government while another 7,000 tons were given to Utility Stores Corporation and private parties on Friday.”
He asserted that the corporation “is releasing 200,000 tons of sugar to provinces, in pursuance of a recent government decision.”
“The deliveries will continue during the weekend and Eid holidays, except for November 17 and 18,” said the official release.
TCP also intends to sell another 23,000 tons in the open market through an auction on November 15. Industry analysts were of the view that low participation in recent sugar auctions shows that there is ample sugar available in the country and that dealers expect prices to plummet in coming days.
Sugar prices continued to ease in markets following increased supply from TCP and crackdown on suspected hoarders. The wholesale price of sugar in Karachi oscillated between Rs82 and Rs84 per kilogramme, according to market sources.
Meanwhile, the Lahore city district government has fixed the wholesale price at Rs69 per kg while the retail rate has been marked at Rs72.
Senate body holds govt responsible
The Senate standing committee on industry and production was informed that all provinces were asked a number of times to purchase 100,000 tons of sugar from TCP but it never happened.
Federal Minister for Industries and Production Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani told the committee’s chairman, Ishaq Dar, that 350,000 tons are consumed monthly in Pakistan and the federal government is in the process of consultation with the provinces in order to control the sugar price and several steps have been taken in this regard.
Earlier, Dar, while chairing the senate committee meeting, said that the sugar crisis is the result of failure of federal as well as provincial governments because the crisis could have been avoided had the government taken timely decisions.
Sugar output estimate raised to 3.7m tons
Pakistan has revised a forecast of 2010-11 sugar production to 3.7 million tons, up by about 500,000 tons from an earlier estimate, despite flood damage to the sugarcane crop, officials said on Friday.
The government had earlier expected up to 3.2 million tons of sugar from the crop, after the country’s worst floods washed away nearly 10.5 million tons of sugarcane.
But after recent surveys of the flood-hit areas in the main cane-growing provinces of Punjab and Sindh, government and industry officials told a meeting on Thursday that yield would be higher in areas where there were rains but no floods.
“Although floods damaged the crop, because of excessive rains we are expecting a healthy crop and up to 20 per cent increase in yield per acre,” Javed Kayani, chairman Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), told Reuters.
An official at the Ministry of Industries and Production confirmed that sugar output estimates had been revised to 3.7 million tons. Fearing shortages, the government in September waived a 25 per cent regulatory duty and allowed millers and traders unlimited imports of raw sugar to meet demand.
Traders have since booked orders for about 70,000 tons of raw sugar, according to government officials.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2010.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ