Despite the start of the crushing season in Sindh and Punjab and the availability of large stocks of imported sugar, wholesale and retail sugar prices in the country have reached record levels.
According to Rauf Ibrahim, president of the Wholesale Grocers Association, the wholesale price of sugar in Karachi has, for the first time, reached Rs202 per kilogram. “Sugar mill owners in Sindh have disrupted the supply of sugar to the wholesale markets of Karachi for the last two days,” he said.
As part of an organized strategy, the wholesale price of sugar has reached Rs 175 per kilogram in Punjab and Rs 200 per kilogram in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he added.
In various areas of Karachi, the retail price of sugar has now increased from Rs 210 to Rs 215 per kilogram.
Read: Sugar mills blame government policy for price rise
Due to the suspension of supplies of sweets, fears have arisen that wholesale prices could rise further in the coming days. Ibrahim said sugar mills purchase sugarcane from farmers at Rs 350-400 per maund, which translates into a production cost of Rs 10 per kilogram for the mills.
He further said that the IMF in its report mentioned cartelization of sugar mill owners but the government did not take any action.
The IMF’s position is correct, he said, and that is why the government must immediately take strict action against cartelization of sugar mills, in the public interest.
