The average annual domestic consumption of sugar is around 4.2 million tons. About 1.5 million tons of sugar was calculated as surplus. Keeping in view the surplus sugar, the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet allowed export of 300,000 tons of sugar (100,000 tons in January this year and 200,000 tons in May), imposing an export quota restriction of 5,000 tons per sugar mill. Reportedly, 95% of the quantity allowed has been allocated to sugar mills.
However, only 133, 471 tons of sugar has so far been actually exported. The ECC had also approved the procurement of 10,000 tons of sugar to compensate eight sugar mills in the light of the Court's decision. This sugar had already been released to the concerned sugar mills. On the request of Tajikistan, export of 30,000 tons of sugar was allowed on government-to-government basis from TCP reserves at preferential price. However, the export has not materialised yet. A total quantity of 3,080,586 tons of sugar was sold by sugar mills in the open market till September 25. TCP procured 687,000 tons sugar during 2011-12 from local sugar mills, out of which 358,119 tons was sold to Utility Stores Corporation (USC) and 150 tons to Pakistan Navy till September 27.
In addition, 30,000 tons of sugar was also likely to be exported to Tajikistan shortly. Balance/u-allocated stock of 298,731 tons sugar is currently available with TCP. A total quantity of 2,128,740 tons (TCP stock 298,731 tons + domestic 1,830,009 tons of sugar) is in hand and it is sufficient till April, 2013 @ 350,000 tons per month consumption. The crushing season starts from November and in some areas of Sindh, it starts in late October.
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) reported that about 500,000 tons of sugar was expected to be produced during the 2012-13 season, which is likely to surpass all previous production figures. PSMA further reported that with an anticipated carryover of 400,000 tons of sugar and meeting the domestic requirement of approximately 4.2 million tons, there would be excess of 1.2 million tons of sugar. The Prime Minister's Secretariat had asked for comments on PSMA's proposals. The Ministry of Commerce had informed the Prime Minister's Secretariat that a summary is being moved for ECC to allow export.
The Commerce Ministry proposed a withdrawal of the unutilised quota (166,529 tons) allocated to sugar mills for export and cancellation of their leftover allocations for fresh export and initially allowed export of 400,000 tons of sugar by sugar mills, including unutilised cancelled quota. According to the proposal, sugar mills may export sugar within 60 days.
The Ministry of Commerce, Federal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan will monitor the export of sugar to ensure that the export does not exceed the allocated quota. The feasibility for export of sugar shall be examined after the upcoming crushing season started. After the export of 400,000 tons of sugar, the remaining quantity of 1,728,740 tons will be sufficient to cater for domestic consumption till February 22, 2013.