Islamabad, June 26 - Pakistan has stopped importing refined sugar given its high stocks, with a final decision on further purchases this year to be taken in early July, a government official said on Friday.
A senior official in the Ministry of Industries and Production said stocks were estimated at more than 2 million tonnes as of May 31, as consumption slumps because of a slowing economy and higher prices.
"Keeping in view the tentative stock estimates, we have decided to confine our imports to 125,000 tonnes," Additional Secretary Muhammad Javed Malik told Reuters, referring to sugar already bought.
The government decided in February to import 200,000 tonnes of white sugar to meet domestic needs and keep prices in check after estimated output fell to nearly 3.2 million tonnes in 2008/09 compared with 4.7 million tonnes the previous year.
The state Trading Corporation of Pakistan has bought 125,000 tonnes since then but it cancelled two tenders over the past month, for a total of 75,000 tonnes.
"But a final decision on whether to buy more or not this year will be taken after a meeting of the food advisory board in the first week of July," Malik said.
Sugar traders and industry officials had earlier projected shortages of up to 700,000 tonnes in the last quarter of this year.
But they now say the country has enough stocks to see it through to the next crushing season, after a sharp fall in consumption because of higher prices and an economic slowdown which resulted in lower demand from industries such as drinks producers.
Iskandar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), said demand fell to 289,641 tonnes a month between October and May, compared with average consumption of 358,000 a month last year.
"We have enough stocks to meet our demand until December, when output from the new crop starts to reach market, and that includes demand in Ramadan," Khan said, referring to the Muslim fasting month, to start in the third week of August.
Sugar demand usually rises during Ramadan.
But Malik said his ministry would consult farmers, traders and millers before firming up stock statistics and taking a final decision on whether more imports were needed.
The sugar harvest begins from the end of November and lasts up to March.