Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007 ePaper |
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Sugar Industry & Economy - Foreign Trade Agri-Biz & Commodities - Exports & Imports Government - Foreign Relations Pakistan detains Indian sugar dispatch on health grounds
Pak importers have so far contracted 20,000 tonnes from Indian mills. They are said to be contemplating going to court on the hold-up. Festival season may push Pak sugar prices further up.
G. Chandrashekhar Mumbai/New Delhi, Aug. 27 India’s attempts to resume sugar exports to Pakistan have received a setback with the land customs authorities at Wagah detaining the first rail rake of 2,400 tonnes entering there on Saturday. The consignment, from the Saraswati Sugar Mills at Yamunanagar (Haryana), has been denied clearance ostensibly on health grounds. “It is a baseless allegation made at the behest of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA). The letter of credit opened by the Bank Alfalah clearly mentions the imported product to be of 150 ICUMSA (a measure of whiteness) and meeting prescribed global polarisation standards (Method 10) for plantation white sugar. To claim that the sugar we consume here and export to so many countries is injurious to health defies logic,” industry sources told Business Line. In contract
Pakistani importers have so far contracted nearly 20,000 tonnes of sugar from Indian mills, including Saraswati Sugar and the Seksaria Biswan Sugar Factory at Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. The sugar has been contracted at $285-290 per tonne deliverable at Wagah, which translates into Rs 17.30-17.60 per kg at the current exchange rate of 60.7 Pakistani rupees to a dollar. “It is in the interest of their consumers to import now, as sugar is selling there at Rs 27-28 a kg ex-mill. Also, they have the festival season coming up, starting with Ramzan in mid-September, which could further push up prices. But imports obviously do not suit the powerful millers’ lobby,” the sources pointed out. The importers, on the other hand, are said to be contemplating going to court against the apparently specious grounds on which the first instalment of Indian sugar has been held up at the customs. This comes even as the Vice-Chairman of PSMA, Mr M. Zaka Ashraf, has been quoted in the Pakistan Times demanding a complete ban on import of sugar from India “keeping in view the public interest”. Those who have contracted imports from Indian mills include Rana Brothers (12,000 tonnes), Swera Traders (5,000 tonnes) and Mashallah Traders (2,500 tonnes). Rail low-cost
Imports by rail via the Attari-Wagah border is cheaper compared to shipping sugar from western Indian ports to Karachi, which works out to over $300 per tonne cost and freight. To this, one has to also add internal transport costs to the Punjab province, which is the main sugar-consuming belt.
Related Stories: India-Pakistan barter? Sugar exports: Industry faces double whammy More Stories on : Sugar | Foreign Trade | Exports & Imports | Foreign Relations | Health
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