Pakistan's sugar crisis dampens festive spirits

Pakistan is Asia's third-largest user of sugar and the world's fifth largest producer of sugar cane, according to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Assocation.

Despite this production, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin told AFP imports were now needed.

“We'll import 300,000 tons of raw sugar and 75,000 tons of refined sugar to stabilize domestic prices,” he said.

A kilo of sugar cost 25 rupees (three U.S. cents) at the start of 2009 and now costs more than 50 rupees, said independent economic analyst A.B. Shahid.

Estimates show a 23 percent decline in sugar crop production. While last year Pakistan produced 4.7 million tons, farmers are on track to produce 3.2 million tons this year. That means a severe shortfall as annual national consumption is 4.2 million tons.

Low rainfall has exacerbated the shortage but Pakistani manufacturers have been blamed for fuelling the problem.

“Sugar mill owners created an artificial shortage crisis. This is a clear case of total loss of government control over the market,” said Shahid.

Some of the country's 80 mills are owned by influential lawmakers affiliated both to the government and the opposition, injecting politics into sugar as into almost everything else in Pakistan.

“There are interest groups on our political landscape who...shelter each other in public because they have common vested interests,” said Shahid.

“Such food crisis shortages will escalate further because we have a useless government, which does not know what to do. No trade body takes action against the black marketeers and hoarders and we see total anarchy,” he said.

The International Sugar Organization (ISO) says worldwide sugar supplies are expected to fall nine million tons short of demand in 2008-09.

In south Asia, sugar has major social and political implications. It is a key part of the diet and an essential ingredient for delicacies at religious festivals, of which Eid al-Fitr is coming up in Pakistan and Diwali in India.

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