PM asks Finance Ministry to check sugar price

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday took a serious note of media reports about the hike in sugar price and directed the finance minister to immediately convene a meeting of the committee on sugar.

He directed the minister to come up with recommendations to ensure easy availability of the commodity at reasonable rates throughout the country.

Sugar price have soared up to Rs80 per kg in last one week and its price hike is escalating on daily basis after reports of serious shortage of the commodity due to sharp decline in sugar-cane production this year. The sugar millers express the fear that it may go up to Rs90 per kg by end of the crushing season. — Ahmad Hassan.

UN warns of surge in food prices

ISLAMABAD: Global food prices are on the rise again, says the latest Food Outlook issued by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Wednesday.

FAO identified a number of possible causes contributing to the price rise: low levels of world cereal stocks, crop failures in major exporting countries; rapidly growing demand for agricultural commodities for bio-fuels; and rising oil prices.

As the price strengthening accelerated, several other factors emerged to reinforce the upheaval, most importantly, government export restrictions, a weakening US dollar and a growing appetite by speculators and index funds for wider commodity portfolio investment on the back of enormous global excess liquidity.

Rice, sugar prices start falling

KARACHI: Prices of various varieties of rice have declined by Rs2 to Rs10 per kg, while supply of sugar from the mills has resulted in some stability in its wholesale rates. 
 
A wholesale rice trader said that the price of a normal variety fell to Rs48 from Rs50 per kg, while Basmati (ponia) rice is now available at Rs45 as against Rs50 earlier.

He said the new 386 Punjab variety now sells at Rs35 as compared to Rs40 per kg, Kernal Basmati price fell to Rs75 from Rs80 per kg, while Kernal special Basmati rate has declined to Rs90 from Rs100 per kg.