LAHORE - Pakistan can repay two installments of IMF loan worth about $0.5 billion by exporting just 1 million tons of sugar, as after consumption, 1.7 million tons of white sweetener will be surplus during the season while the TCP is directed by the Cabinet to maintain strategic stock of 0.5 million tons.
ISLAMABAD: The measures taken by the government have resulted in stabilizing retail sugar price, which has decreased from Rs91 per kg in November 2010 to an average of Rs55 per kg in June this year.
Currently the retail price of sugar is all time low i.e. Rs 54.66 per kg while it was Rs63.35 in June 2010 and Rs69.61 in June-2011. There has been a bumper record sugar production of 4.61 million tons in the year 2011-12 which has pushed the sugar price down, an official source said here on Sunday.
JDW claims to have a crushing efficiency of 72% in its largest unit, higher than any other mill in Pakistan
LAHORE: Despite operating in a highly protected market, JDW Sugar Mills Managing Director Jahangir Tareen seems remarkably obsessed with building a globally competitive business, even as he continues to advocate government protection for his industry.
“I came into this business with a vision to compete with the world, not just local firms,” said Tareen in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune.
ISLAMABAD: The Punjab Government has contested the May 16 decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to export 400,000 tons of sugar, which was taken under the pressure of the sugar cartel said the overall prices of the commodity would shoot up before and during the forthcoming holy month of Ramadan.
ISLAMABAD: The powerful sugar cartel of the country has once again started misleading the government with the exaggerated figures to allow them the sale of 400,000 tons more sugar abroad, sources said on Friday.
“In Pakistan, the sugar industry has turned into a ‘political industry’ as most of the producers and sellers of the commodity are sitting in the parliament and has once again approached President Asif Ali Zardari to allow them 400,000 tons of sugar export,” the sources said.
LAHORE - Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has urged the federal government to consider its proposal of barter trade with Iran by exporting the white sweetener to its neighbour and importing urea against that.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan sugar Mills Association (PSMA) is urging the government to allow the export of sugar while Agri Forum Pakistan (AFP) is opposing the idea. However, a former advisor to Ministry of Finance termed sugar a political crop and sugar industry a political industry owned by politicians across the political divide.
LAHORE: Agri Forum Pakistan, Chairman, Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal, has urged the government not to allow export of sugar till the sugar industry declares the final production figures. In a statement issued on Saturday, Mughal said that sugar price should not cross Rs 55 per kilogram in the market if the price paid to the sugarcane growers by the millers this year is kept in mind.
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has urged the Commerce Ministry to exclude sugar from positive list while granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India.
On Tuesday Federal Cabinet quashed negative list prepared by the Commerce Ministry, as Ministry of Textile Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Establishment and some industry stakeholders opposed Commerce Ministry in taking such a decision in haste.
ISLAMABAD: After lifting the almost entire sugarcane stocks, the government has allowed export of 100,000 tons of sugar to improve sugar industry’s cash flows and ward off a possible glut in the market that may further bring down the retail price.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Tuesday. It was presided over by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
KARACHI: Prices of a majority of edible commodities are likely to remain on the higher side in 2012 due to rising cost of production on account of increases in rates of power, petrol and gas, traders said on Saturday.
However, the price of sugar may remain stable next year due to a likely bumper crop. Moreover, the government has to maintain its buffer stock of the sweetener, said Javed Kiyani, Chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association.
The Ministry of Industries (MoI) has proposed to import 0.4 million tons of sugar to maintain stability in the market during the next season. This move has been strongly condemned by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA). "We strongly condemn the MoI for proposing import of 0.4 million tons of sugar as we have a bumper sugarcane crop with production up to 0.7 million tons above the requirement," said the Chairman of PSMA, Javed Kayani.
LAHORE: Export of organic brown sugar is proposed in the forthcoming Trade Policy 2011/12 as the Ministry of Industries has also supported the proposal being a high demand of this kind of sweetener, which will earn good amount of foreign currency for the national exchequer, according to official document.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has been found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour and collusive activity that hurt consumers and restricted new entrants into the market and has been fined the maximum penalty of Rs75 million by the Competition Commission of Pakistan.
A provisional inquiry report by the CCP, made available to The Express Tribune, discloses that the PSMA – a group of 81 sugar mills – has been involved in preventing, restricting and reducing competition in the sugar industry.
SLAMABAD : The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has urged government to impose 25 percent regulatory duty (RD) on imported sugar to save the local sugar industry from collapse, and take stern action against the middleman. In a letter dated January 10, 2011, to the Minister for Industries and Production (MoI&P), Hazar Khan Bijarani.
ugar production in 2010/11 (Nov/Oct) is forecast to reach 3.8 mln tonnes, white value, according to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA). Earlier, the group had predicted output to be in a range of 3.6-3.8 mln tonnes.
PESHAWAR: The sugar mills of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has started crushing after the initiation of supply of sugarcane by the farmers in Peshawar, Mardan and D.I. Khan, officials of the sugar industry told APP on Tuesday.
ISLAMABAD: Sugar barons are fleecing consumers by making cartels at three different tiers, which makes them liable for the maximum penalty, says the findings of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).
Official sources told The Express Tribune that according to the provisional order of the CCP, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had made a three-tier cartel in the industry. However, the CCP cannot make its order public as the PSMA has obtained a stay order from the Sindh High Court (SHC), which is present in the Registrar’s Office.
The sugar mills, among others, would be the major gainers as the proposed EU programme would also allow duty-free export of ethanol to the EU countries.
The country on average exports 250,000 tons of ethanol annually and after the introduction of the zero-rated regime, exports may even reach 300,000 tons annually.
Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood said on Friday that the EU has unilaterally given trade assistance to Pakistan and 30 per cent duties on export of ethanol from Pakistan have been withdrawn.
“This will give a boost to sugar industry and production at the distilleries would enhance apart from financial benefits to the sector.” Mr Mahmood said.
Shunid Qureshi, former chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, pointed out that the proposal would be forwarded to all EU states for approval and it has to be cleared by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) before being implemented.
Pakistan remained top molasses exporter by 2004 but gradually all exports were converted to the value-added product ethanol, and distilleries enjoyed duty-free ethanol export to the EU between 2002 and 2004. Although 30 per cent duty was imposed in 2005, export of ethanol remained steady.
Currently Pakistan has 20 distilleries which are operating at 80 per cent capacity, and the bulk of ethanol produced is exported. However, a nominal amount of high quality ethanol is used by the PSO to market its 10 per cent ethanol mixed petrol E-10.
“The distilleries in the country are mostly producing industrial grade ethanol, but many have been upgraded to produce fuel grade ethanol,” Shunid Qureshi said.
However, none of the distillery in the country is producing edible grade ethanol used mainly in the beverage industry to make alcoholic drinks as they need special permission from the importing country.
Meanwhile, the Federal Board of Revenue has issued SRO No 933(I)/2010 notifying zero per cent duty on import of raw sugar of both kinds, cane sugar and on beet sugar by the private sector. Welcoming the decision, the PSMA said that import of raw sugar would help cover the gap created by sugarcane shortage, but sugar mills association has reiterated the demand that open permission might create an over-flooding of raw sugar in the country.
source: dawn
Pakistan’s deadliest floods ruined crops worth 281.6 billion rupees ($3.27 billion), destroying rice, cotton and sugar, said Farm Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal.
The country lost 2.39 million metric tons of rice and 10.4 million tons of standing sugar cane, the minister said in an interview today in Islamabad. The nation may also import 2.8 million bales of cotton, he said.
By ripping out crops, stores and 4,000 kilometers of roads, the floods boosted food prices and may push annual inflation to 20 percent, according to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The inundations affected 20 million people, killing more than 1,800 and damaging 1.9 million homes, the government said. The losses helped push rice in Chicago to the highest level since May and boosted cotton to the most expensive in 15 years in New York.
“There will be pressure on exports,” Rakesh Singh, a rice trader at Emmsons International Ltd., said by phone from New Delhi. The country may still ship 3 million tons after a bumper crop last year, said Singh.
Gondal’s assessment of rice losses is higher than the 1.5 million tons estimated by Malik Jahangir, chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, on Sept. 1. The minister didn’t say whether the number was rough or milled rice.
With some new areas being flooded in the southern province of Sindh, “we will need another month to finalize our estimates for the immediate crop losses,” Gondal said today.
Staple Crops
Exports from Pakistan, the third-biggest rice supplier, may plunge 35 percent to 3 million tons in the year started July 1 from 4.6 million tons the previous year, according to Jahangir.
Wheat and rice are the two staples for Pakistan’s people, and the government and international relief agencies have found it hard to provide food for affected areas. The United Nations said damage to infrastructure may hurt farmers for years.
The country, the third-largest cotton user, may import 50 percent more this year, said an industry official Sept. 21. Imports may reach 3 million bales, up from 2 million last year, according to Muhammad Arshad, a vice president at the Pakistan Central Cotton committee, a government-supported organization.
The nation is also Asia’s third-biggest sugar user and may import 1 million tons next year after the floods damaged 15 percent of the cane crop, a farmers’ group said this month.
Sugar mills may produce 3 million tons against a target of 3.5 million tons in 2011 because less cane will be available, said Ibrahim Mughal, chairman of the Agri Forum Pakistan. “That means we would need to import 1 million tons of raw or refined sugar to meet demand,” he said.
Pakistan consumes 4 million tons of sugar a year and needs shipments to bolster supply and reduce record domestic prices. The government has approved duty-free imports of raw sugar by mills and traders.
source: bloomberg
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