Dar directs authorities to keep strategic sugar reserves
The meeting also reviewed steps to streamline surplus sugar exports while assessing current stock levels and domestic consumption needs.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar directed authorities on Wednesday to hold strategic sugar reserves sufficient for national demand, the state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
Dar ordered that the reserves be kept in place while ensuring that retail prices do not come under upward pressure.
He was presiding over a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on the Export of Surplus Sugar in Islamabad when he gave the directive.
Dar said that exporting surplus goods helps strengthen the agricultural economy and brings in valuable foreign exchange, but protecting domestic consumers remains the government's first priority.
At the meeting, members reviewed ongoing measures to simplify the export of surplus sugar and worked on finalizing the administrative, technical and procedural frameworks for it.
Dar thanked committee members for their contributions and praised their joint efforts to facilitate the smooth export of surplus sugar, the report said.
Current stock levels and domestic consumption requirements were assessed in detail, the report added, to ensure that sugar exports will not affect domestic price stability.
The committee oversees the process through which surplus sugar can be sent abroad, and sugar prices are a closely watched concern for households across Pakistan, so any export decision is usually weighed against local supply.
