KARACHI: Sugar prices across the country rose sharply despite government efforts to control the market. The federal government set the ex-mill price at Rs165 per kilogram, but retail prices in major cities remain between Rs190 and Rs210.
Sugar mills in Sindh and Punjab reportedly stopped deliveries, cutting supply and forcing sellers to use stored stock. This pushed wholesale prices from Rs178-Rs180 to Rs182 per kilogram and raised retail prices further.
Read more: Platinum Price in Pakistan Today – Latest Rates Per Tola & Gram (2025)
The government approved importing half a million metric tonnes of sugar to ease shortages, but the prices remain unstable.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) launched its first inquiry into price gouging by sugar mills in 2009. It revealed prima facie evidence of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), engaging in price-fixing and manipulating production and supply quotas to control market prices.
Similarly, a major probe in 2020 exposed coordinated actions by sugar mills to fix prices and restrict supply, facilitated by the PSMA. Following raids on PSMA offices, the CCP imposed a record Rs44 billion penalty on the mills and association in August 2021.
Read more: Job opening at Sargodha Waste Management Company
Despite numerous CCP policy notes issued in 2009, 2012 and 2021, recommending deregulation, allowing market forces greater influence and lifting restrictions on sugar mills, distortions persist.
Currently, over 120 cases related to sugar industry collusion are pending across Pakistani courts.
