ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is seeking to import 75,000 tonnes of white sugar in a tender that will close on Aug 29, the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan said on Saturday.
 
‘Trading Corporation of Pakistan ... invites bids from pre-qualified foreign suppliers for supply of 75,000 tonnes white sugar in bags (in break bulk) from worldwide sources,’ the agency said in a statement published in newspapers.
 
The bids will be opened on Aug. 29.
 
Pakistan decided in February to import 200,000 tonnes of white sugar to meet demand and keep a check on prices after output fell to an estimated 3.2 million tonnes in the 2008/09 crop compared with 4.7 million tonnes the previous year.
 
The TCP has imported 125,000 tonnes of white sugar but it cancelled two tenders in May and June, for a total of 75,000 tonnes, after stocks built up to a comfortable level.
 
But the economic coordination committee of the cabinet, the government’s top decision-making body on economic issues, on Tuesday allowed the TCP to import the remaining 75,000 tonnes after domestic sugar prices soared in the retail market.

Authorities in the country’s biggest province of Punjab have launched a crackdown on hoarders who they blame for trying to squeeze supplies to push up their profit ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan beginning later this month.

Sugar consumption tends to increase in Ramadan.
 
Pakistan’s annual sugar consumption fluctuates between 3.6 and 4.2 million tonnes, but industry officials say it has gone down since October, because of higher prices and an economic slowdown that resulted in lower demand from industries such as drink producers.

Pakistan is also likely to import 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar later this year as the 2009/10 crop is expected to be about three million tonnes, well short of the consumption.
 
The sugar harvest begins at the end of November and lasts up to March. — Reuters