ISLAMABAD: Focal Person of the Finance Ministry Muzzammil Aslam has said that the country will have surplus sugar this year as the production has increased to 7.5 million tonnes from 5.5 million tonnes last year, showing a growth of 36.3 percent. In a tweet on Friday, Muzzammil Aslam said, “Great news this year sugar production rose to 7.5 million tonnes, which is 36.3% higher from last year 5.5 million tonnes. Another record in place by the PTI government.” Commenting on the development, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said in a tweet that as a result of this increase by 2 million tonnes, Pakistan is back to a sugar surplus country from a deficit. Ex-mill sugar prices are now around Rs81 per kg substantially lower from last year, he noted. TLTP
To note, the government had decided to procure approximately 0.5 million tons of sugar from the domestic sugar mills from February to June 2022 in order to build up strategic reserves. According to the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) data for the week ended on March 17, 2022, the average price of sugar had declined by 0.49% WoW in major cities of Pakistan.
Recently, Muzzammil Aslam said that 15,000 tonnes of sugar is consumed daily in the country, out of it 6,000 tonnes are consumed at household level and 9,000 tonnes at commercial level. He said that sugar is not a federal subject and the provinces decide about their sugarcane rates on their own.
