Pour some sugar on me

Pakistan on Tuesday allowed the export of 200,000 tonnes of white sugar and directed the state trading corporation to buy 200,000 tonnes from local mills for domestic stocks, the chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) said. “The export will be handled by the mills themselves,” Javed Kayani told Reuters. Pakistan’s sugar production in the ongoing season is close to 4.7 million tonnes, according to the PSMA. “We had earlier approached the government and proposed that they purchase 400,000 tonnes of sugar from us,” Kayani said. “It would help us with liquidity and facilitate payments of between 25 and 30 billion rupees ($275 million to $330 million) to growers.” Kayani added that the Pakistani millers were looking at Tajikistan, Iraq and Indonesia as possible markets for export. Officials from Pakistan’s commerce and finance ministries were not immediately available for comment. In February, Pakistan approved the export of sugar for the first time in nearly three years, spurred by an expected surplus of more than 1 million tonnes. Last year, Pakistani millers sought permission from the government to export up to 500,000 tonnes of refined sugar because of expectations of a bumper crop, which could exceed 5 million tonnes.