Sugar hits new highs as former allies pass buck on smuggling

Sugar prices rose to record levels in various parts of the country on Monday, as members of the former ruling coalition continued to trade blame over who was ultimately responsible for the country’s dwindling stocks of the commodity. The growers, on the other hand, hold the recently dissolved PDM government responsible for its failure to stop the menace of smuggling which, they claim, sent almost a million metric tonnes of the commodity across the border over the past year. One kilogramme of the commodity was selling for Rs230 in Balochistan’s Chaman area, while shops in the central Punjab town of Arifwala were charging Rs185/kg, PPI reported. In Karachi, sugar prices fell by Rs2 to Rs176 per kg in the wholesale market, but the retail price of 1kg of sugar remained Rs190. Last week, the caretaker government expressed alarm over depleting sugar stocks after a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Caretaker Cabinet was told that only 2.27 million tonnes were available in the country. Rising sugarcane prices and court orders were also seen as being behind the rising price of sugar.