Pak may buy 40,000 tons of white sugar from India

In Pakistan, domestic sugar prices have gone up by about 35 per cent in the past two months.

Pakistan, Asia's third-biggest sugar user, plans to buy as much as 40,000 metric tons of white sugar from countries including India to plug a local shortage.

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Most of the imports will arrive in mid April from India, Raees Ashraf Tar Mohammad, chairman of Pakistan Commodity Traders Association said.

The order is in addition to the 50,000 tons the government said last week it needs and the 50,000 tons imported last month from India and Brazil, he said.

In Pakistan, domestic sugar prices have gone up by about 35 per cent in the past two months.

"It is difficult to assess what will be the exact shortfall, but the latest figure indicates that sugar production may decline by as much as one million tons," Raees said.

Pakistan's sugar cane production fell to 46 million tons in the year ended November 2005, from 47 million tons a year earlier, prolonging the drought-induced shortfall that began in 2004.

The cane last season is estimated to have produced 2.33 million tons of white sugar, compared with 2.49 million tons a year earlier, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association said in a statement.

Pakistan has allowed shipments of Indian sugar by truck on August 2 last year, ending a four-year embargo on sugar imports from India.