Trading firms may supply Indian sugar to Pakistan

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

NEW DELHI: India may export 320,000 tonnes of sugar to Pakistan, its first shipment to the neighbouring country in two years as local output is set to jump after higher cane planting and adequate monsoon rains.
Two sources familiar with the deal told Reuters on Monday that India may supply the white sugar to trading firms, which are selling the sweetener to Pakistan.
India, the world’s top sugar consumer and the biggest producer behind Brazil, is expecting a rebound in local output, which will encourage to export after importing large quantities last year.
Last week Pakistan awarded contracts to import 320,000 tonnes of white sugar from Singapore's Agrocorp International and Dubai's Sucden Middle East.
Supplying Indian sugar will be very attractive for the companies,” an official with a Mumbai-based trading firm, told Reuters.
Traders in Karachi also said Indian sugar was likely to be shipped to Pakistan.
“The news on the street is that the sugar - 250,000 tonnes from Agrocorp and 70,000 tonnes from Sucden - will originate from India,” said a Karachi-based trader, familiar with the tendering process, who declined to be identified.
India last year imported large quantities of sugar, contributing to a surge in New York raw sugar futures to the highest level in 29 years in February. The country was expected to resume exports only in the new sugar season that starts in October.
Traders said India’s export of sugar to Pakistan would be bearish for the market.
“If it is coming from India, then that is opening up a potential new avenue for imports other than from Brazil,” said Nick Penney, a sugar futures broker with Sucden Financial Sugar in London.
If the origin of the latest sugar for Pakistan is the silo at the Dubai Al Khaleej refinery, however, this would be market-neutral, dealers said. London October white sugar was up $0.20 at $540.00 per tonne.
Traders say India had last exported about 70,000 tonnes of sugar to Pakistan in the 2007/08 season.