Sugar prices increase despite control efforts

• Govt sets retail price ceiling at Rs164 per kg, but prices rise.
• National average price remains at Rs168.8 per kg since Mar 27.
• Country exports 757,597 metric tons in seven months of FY25.

Over the past fortnight, the retail price of sugar has averaged Rs168.8 per kilogramme, surpassing the government’s prescribed ceiling of Rs164 per kg, despite official attempts to stabilise the market, as revealed by data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). 

The News reported that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar chaired a high-level inter-ministerial meeting on Friday to address price volatility and streamline supply chains. 

He reiterated the government’s commitment to structural reforms aimed at ensuring market stability and long-term economic resilience. The government had set the retail price at Rs164 per kg and the ex-mill rates below Rs159 per kg on March 19. However, open market prices remain elevated, ranging between Rs170 and Rs180 per kg. 

PBS figures show that the national average price of sugar has remained flat at Rs168.8 per kg since March 27. Prices have risen sharply since late November, when sugar traded at Rs131.85 per kg.

The surge comes despite pledges by sugar mills to maintain prices below Rs140 per kg. Instead, domestic supply pressures intensified even as Pakistan exported 757,597 metric tons of sugar worth $407 million in the first seven months of the fiscal year. 

In January alone, sugar exports totaled 124,793 tons valued at $64.34 million. In Ramadan, the price surged to Rs185 per kilo.

Finally, the government had to intervene and strike an agreement to fix the commodity price at Rs164 per kg for one month. Now, from April onwards, there are apprehensions that the prices may go up again in the domestic market.

According to the draft proposal prepared by the Ministry of Industry for re-export, with an average annual production of 6.150 million metric tons, Pakistan stands as the seventh largest producer of sugar in the world. The sugar industry is a part of the large manufacturing sector and has shown significant growth during the last ten years, highlighting its importance for Pakistan’s economy.