After the pitiless increase in petroleum prices, the sugar crises have risen to an alarming level, with sugar being sold at Rs.151/- per kg in the wholesale markets at Karachi. The retail price at various places and cities has gone beyond Rs.170/-.
According to downstream consumers this is nothing but an attempt by rent seekers for illegal profiteering. This practice of manipulating the market and looting consumers must be stopped. The downstream industry, using sugar as basic raw material have been jolted by such skyrocketed prices and are left with no option but to close down their factories, if not rescued.
The industrial and domestic consumers seek an immediate action by concerned authorities against the culprits involved in such cartelization/hoarding so that the illegal raise in prices may be neutralized in the best interest of local industry and overall economy of Pakistan.
Sugar remains one of the largest consumed food commodities in the country. It is used in large amounts in food processing, beverages, and bakery items. Owing to its huge demand, the government sets its procurement prices while the sugar industry is protected by a 40 percent import tariff to ensure prices remain stable. The sugar millers mafia always create crisis in the country. During last season in November the sugar industry was reluctant to start cane crushing until the government allows surplus quantity to be exported. They had a surplus sugar of 1.2 million tons and were urging the government to allow exporting the commodity. They claimed the sugar industry can earn $1 billion in foreign exchange if the government gives the green signal for the export.
They had produced eight million tonnes of sugar last season, adding that 1.2 million tonnes were produced in surplus. “We cannot start the crushing season until the government allows us to export the surplus commodity,” their representatives threatened through media.
It may be mentioned here that Federal governments in Pakistan have provided subsidies on the export of surplus sugar in the past, which turned out to be a scam of billions of rupees. Experts increasingly blame influential businessmen and politicians of colluding to hike sugar prices in local markets and then offering subsidies for its export. Rising food prices, particularly of sugar and wheat flour, present one of the toughest challenges for the government.
Agriculture is the backbone of our economy and the Punjab government has been working on different schemes to support farmers. But the middlemen and main suppliers are always busy in smuggling sugar and wheat not only to neighboring Afghanistan but up to Tajikistan and other Central Asian Republics by depriving the domestic consumers.
