Per kg sugar costs Rs170 in various cities

Lahore: The retail price of sugar in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad has reached Rs170 per kg due to the increase in wholesale prices due to strong demand during Ramadan.

According to a report, retailers in Karachi fear that if the upward trend in the wholesale market continues, the price could reach Rs200. However, wholesalers blame the millers for the increase in prices.

In Karachi, the wholesale rate of sugar increased by Rs15 to Rs155 per kg in a week.

Earlier, the average national price of sugar in February was Rs145 to Rs160 per kg.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) (Punjab Zone) has claimed that there has been no unusual increase in the ex-mill price while it fluctuates due to supply and demand factors.

The spokesperson said that the sugar industry is generally blamed for the price hike, whereas the ground reality is that as soon as the sugar sacks leave the mill premises, they become the plaything of wholesalers and retailers.

He stated that speculators, profiteers, and hoarders are manipulating the market prices by spreading rumors and putting the entire blame on the sugar industry. He alleged that “this speculator mafia has various social media groups which speculate on prices”.

The spokesperson added that wholesalers and retailers have set different profit margins on a region-by-region and market-by-market basis.

He claimed that sugar is being sold at Rs130 per kg in the Ramadan bazaars.

In a statement, a PSMA spokesperson said that the real beneficiaries of the artificial price hike are speculators, hoarders, and profiteers who spread rumors to distort the interplay of market forces to make undue profits on the sugar available to them.

The association said that ‘mills are providing sugar at Rs130 in all districts and tehsils through Ramadan package discount stalls in collaboration with the federal/provincial governments and district administrations’.