The National Minister of Food Security and Research, Frog Tanveer Hussain, said Thursday that Pakistan continued to have a surplus of sugar and categorically dismissed reports of a shortage due to exports such as a misleading perception.
Pakistan is once again in the control of a family affliction: the annual sugar crisis. In 2025, retail prices of sugar have increased more than RS200 per kilogram in many urban and peri -urban markets, despite the official statements that insist on sufficient actions.
In the 2024-25 season, it is estimated that Pakistan sugar production is 6.8 million tons, while consumption is expected to be 6.6 million tons, leaving very little surplus and minimum opportunities for market swings. Instead of a problem of genuine shortage, this crisis seems to be manufactured to a large extent, fueled by a toxic combination of speculative hoarding, market manipulation, weak governance and poor regulatory supervision. The result is that consumers are loaded, farmers have the change in change and confidence in public institutions continues to erode.
When addressing a press conference on the matter today, Hussain said: “A perception is being created as if there is an important problem regarding the availability, supply or fixation of sugar prices.”
He added that the government has launched an offensive against hoarders and deposits, including retailers and even factories owners were being reviewed, to control the manipulation in the market.
Referring to criticism about the initial approval of the Government of Sugar Exports, followed by import plans, Hussain said that these narratives ignored historical trends and objective data. Citing records of the last ten years, he explained that sugar exports were traditionally allowed shortly after the crushing season and occasionally were followed by imports, except in one or two years.
The minister explained that Sugar’s advisory board, which includes federal ministers, secretaries, representatives of the four provinces and interested parties of the industry, approved exports last year on the database.
At the beginning of the season, Pakistan had an opening stock of 800,000 metric tons. The crushing season showed 6.8 million metric tons of sugar, while the country’s annual internal consumption stood at 6.3 million metric tons, leaving a surplus of 1.3 million metric tons.
“To avoid an excess of supply that could damage both farmers and the mills, the government had allowed gradual sugar exports,” he said.
Contrary to concerns that exports would lead to national shortage or price increases, the market experienced a decrease in RS138/kg prices to RS119/kg after the export decision in October 2024.
“This shows that the export decision was not responsible for any artificial shortage or price inflation,” added the minister.
He acknowledged that the initial projections for the estimated sugar production estimated by the 2024–25 season to 7 m metric tons, slightly higher than the previous year. However, climate change negatively affected agricultural production, including sugarcane performance. As a result, real production fell to 5.8 m of metric tons.
Responding to the deficit, the prime minister ordered an immediate high for more exports in January 2025. At the end of the crushing season on April 30, the total available shares, including a getting tons of metric tons of 0.5 million, stood in metric tons of 6.3 million, which coincides with the national consumption requirements.
Currently, the country has about 2 million metric tons of sugar, enough to meet consumption needs during the next three months.
The minister attributed recent price increases to market handling by factories, wholesalers and hoarders, particularly after an increase in the prices of acquisition of sugarcane from RS450 to RS700 for 40 kg.
He said the government intervened and negotiated with interested parties to fix the ex -mill price to RS165 per kg and the retail price at RS173/kg.
To guarantee compliance, the government has launched application operations against offenders throughout the supply chain.
“The implementation will take some time, but the system is in place and the action is underway,” he said.
Currently, retail prices have stabilized between RS172 and RS173/kg, while former prices are maintained in RS165.
Hussain said that sugar prices in Pakistan were widely aligned with those of neighboring countries.
The minister added that Pakistan won $ 402 million of the export of 750,000 metric tons of sugar last year. However, he acknowledged that the previous approval could have reached higher export rates.
To manage internal availability, the Government approved sugar imports of up to 500,000 metric tons, although it was expected that only 300,000 tons be brought, which cost approximately $ 150 million.
Withdrawing the problem of sugar as an exaggerated, Hussain urged the media and political leaders to change their approach to strategic national developments.
“Our real priority should be historical achievements, such as the recent commercial agreement with the United States,” he said. He also highlighted broader signs of economic recovery, citing improvements of currency reservations, an estate in the increase in the Pakistan Stock Exchange and the decrease in inflation rates as indicators of a better economic management.
PSMA says that sugar factories supply basic products at RS165/kg
Separately, the Association of Sugar de Pakistan (PSMA) shots said that all sugar factories were supplying sugar at RS165/kg ex mill and the country had wide sugar stocks until mid -November 2025.
In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said that the sugar supply chain was affected due to divergent administrative measures taken by some government institutions, which had been repaired and that the sugar supply continued.
The statement said the sugar industry had previously clarified that all mills were supplying sugar to the domestic market in RS165/kg ex mill.
“The factories only care about ex-molinian prices, while the retail price of sugar in the market is normally determined by market forces that is now being controlled by the government. According to media reports, sugar is sold to RS200/kg, but according to the information of the sugar industry, the merchandise in most markets is available at the price of the group of the Government of RS173 until RS175/kg “.
The spokesman clarified that sugar dealers were buying sugar from the mills with RS165/kg ex mills and instead of giving it to national consumers, they were giving it to industrial and commercial consumers with higher profits.
“Gougers and hoarders were creating obstacles in the sugar supply they had bought before the price was set. They are blaming sugar exports by creating the impression of an artificial sugar shortage.
“Linking sugar prices with exports is completely against the facts. The Government had allowed the export of sugar only in case of surplus transport of the transport stock of the last two years that were available with the mills and more surplus sugar occurred in the crushing season of 2023-24. The factories had to sell sugar in a loss below the cost of production, while fulfilling the condition of the government of the government of RS140/kg.
“Before sugar exports, all official estimates had shown a great possibility that the next season of crushing see a good sugar cane performance and will produce more sugar, but due to global warming and climate change, the production of sugar cane and its sucrose level decreased, which negatively affected sugar production.”
The statement said that in the previous crushing season, the sugar industry bought sugar cane to RS700 by Maund, which was RS425 by Maund in the 2023-24 crushing season. This provided substantial benefits to farmers; However, it led to the cost of the sugar industry to make sugar increase significantly.
“There was also a multiple increase in other production costs, due to which sugar factories had to suffer continuous losses in recent years, and now 12 sugar factories were already closed the sale.
The PSMA said that all these problems would be solved by deregulating the sugar sector as soon as possible, as happened in the case of rice and corn sectors.
Tahir Sherani’s additional reports.
