Govt to import 50k tons of sugar to strengthen supplies

KATHMANDU, Sept 9: In a bid to strengthen the supplies during upcoming festival season, the government is purchasing 50,000 tons of sugar from Thailand and Brazil. [break]



Responding to the queries raised by lawmakers in the meeting of Finance and Labor Committee of legislature-parliament Tuesday, Finance Minister Surendra Pandey said 5,000 tons of sugar from Thailand would arrive within 10 days and 45,000 tons of sugar from Brazil would enter the country between Dashain and Tihar.



The Ministry of Supplies has already directed the Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the National Trading Limited (NTL), the state undertakings, to import 30,000 tons and 20,000 tons respectively.



“We have sufficient stock of sugar to fulfill the increasing demand during the festive season and the planned import of sugar would help improve supply situation in coming days,” said Pandey.



Brazilian and Thai sugar would be imported at $ 425 and $440 per ton respectively, meaning that the purchase price would hover around Rs 53 per kg. With the decline in sugarcane production, domestic market has been experiencing sharp rise in sugar prices for the last few months.



Domestic production of sugar hovers around 110,000 tons against the annual domestic demand of 150,000 tons. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC), the production of sugarcane nosedived to 2.48 million tons in 2008/09 from 2.6 million tons a year earlier.



Pandey said 3,000 tons and 500 tons of sugar imported respectively by the NTL and the STC have already come to Birjunj. The state-owned firms imported sugar as per the government´s earlier decision to import 40,000 tons of sugar in an attempt to intervene the market amid soaring price of sugar.



Both the firms are selling sugar to retailers at Rs 52 per kg. To make sugar imported by state-owned firms cheaper than the sugar supplied by private traders, the government had imported the sugar under 15 percent customs, down from 25 percent imposed on private imports. STC and NTL had imported 30,000 tons and 10,000 tons respectively.



Sugar prices in Nepali market have continued to soar and lately being sold at the range of Rs 60 to Rs 66 per kg in open market due to the impact of price hike in India that has seen fall in sugar production this year.

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