BSFIC plans to export 50,000 tonnes of sugar to EU mkts
Rezaul Karim | Thursday, 30 October 2014
Bangladesh Sugar & Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) plans to export some 50,000 tonnes of sugar produced by the corporation to the European Union (EU) countries, officials have said.
The Ministry of Industries (MoI) has sought permission from the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) in this connection. Earlier, the BSFIC had sought permission from the MoI to export the sugar to the EU markets.
"We are taking permission in advance to export sugar to the European markets as there is demand for our item in those countries," a high BSFIC official said.
"Presently, sugar price in the international market is low. We will export our sugar to the markets under the Everything But Arms (EBA) facility, when the prices of the product go up," he added.
Customers are not interested to buy sugar from government mills as the price of refined sugar is declining in the local market. As a result, sale of the corporation's sugar is showing a downtrend, sources said.
The BSFIC has set a target to produce 0.127 million tonnes of sugar through its different mills for the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15 across the country, data showed.
A total of 0.281 million tonnes of sugar will be in stock with the BSFIC if the target is achieved in the current FY, an official of the MoI said.
He, however, said about 1.4 million tonnes of sugar is needed at present for meeting the domestic demand annually. More than 1.9 million and 2.02 million tonnes of raw sugar were imported in the FY 2013-14 and FY 2014-15 respectively.
Sugar import from the international markets by different traders is going on due to lower prices and taxation facility there. So, a considerable volume of sugar has remained stocked in the country and there is no possibility of deficit of sugar in the domestic market in the near future, he added.
Some 0.125 million tonnes of unsold sugar remains stored in the warehouses of different mills, according to the BSFIC official.
Presently there are 16 mills under the BSFIC, according to the official data.