NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s sugar industry is looking towards India as a potential market for its surplus stocks of sugar, hours after the Government of India opened the door to duty-free sugar imports amid a surge in domestic prices.
The development comes at a strained moment in India-Pakistan relations.
Pakistan-based daily, The News International, reported on Thursday that Pakistan’s sugar industry has urged the government to explore exporting surplus sugar to India, citing a senior member of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA).
Direct bilateral trade between India and Pakistan is at a standstill following heightened political and security tensions, with the Attari-Wagah border and air routes closed. Yet, Pakistan’s sugar millers now see India’s import decision as an opportunity to clear their mounting stocks and improve their finances.
The Centre on Thursday (August 20), allowed duty-free imports of 10 lakh metric tonnes of raw sugar under a Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) until October 31, 2026. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said the move was aimed at improving domestic availability and containing rising prices.
The decision marks a significant shift for India’s sugar market, which has largely remained protected from imports for years. Pakistan’s sugar industry is now pushing its government to explore whether some of its surplus can be shipped across the border, according to Pakistan-based The News International newspaper.
Ch Muhammad Waheed, a senior member of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) representing Hunza Sugar Mills Ltd, has urged the Pakistan government to allow the export of surplus sugar to India.
Waheed said Pakistan’s sugar industry is carrying more than “1.2 million tonnes of surplus stocks”, creating pressure on mills ahead of the next crushing season. The industry fears that another bumper crop could further swell inventories and make it difficult for mills to purchase the next sugarcane crop from farmers.
“India’s proximity gives Pakistan a potential freight advantage over distant export destinations. Exporting sugar to India could bring in foreign exchange, improve mill liquidity, reduce storage costs and allow sugar mills to make timely payments to sugarcane farmers,” Waheed was quoted as saying by the Pakistan-based newspaper.
He also suggested that bilateral sugar trade could have a wider benefit by reviving at least one avenue of economic engagement between the two neighbours.
But there is an important catch amid all this. Pakistan is not currently preparing to send sugar to India under an existing bilateral trade arrangement. Rather, its sugar industry is asking Islamabad to permit such exports. Any actual shipment would require the necessary government approvals and a mechanism for trade between the two countries.
