Sugar prices on Sunday spiked to a record high of up to Rs220 per kilogram in retail markets of Balochistan.
In Balochistan, sugar that had been priced at Rs200 per kg unexpectedly increased by Rs20 per kg to an all-time high of Rs220.
According to market sources, the commodity’s wholesale price in the province is Rs210 per kilogram, while a 50-kg bag has reached Rs10,500.
Dealers claim that once the sugar supply was stopped due to traffic jams caused by the suspension of permits, the price of the product went up.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to import 1 million metric tonnes of sugar to address the depleted stock of the commodity in the country.
The federal government will import sugar at an inflated price of Rs220 per kilogramme — the burden for which be transferred to the inflation-battered public who will be left with no choice but to buy the commodity at high rates.
The precarious situation is a result of sugar mill owners misleading the government, securing permission for export by reassuring that the country has ‘sufficient’ stock for domestic use.
A spokesperson for the Punjab Food Department has warned of a possible sugar crisis in the coming days despite having a carry-forward surplus stock of sugar of around 1 million metric tonnes.
