Pakistan is to import 50000 tons of sugar from India to meet domestic demand and maintainable market prices. Pakistan is expected to produce 2.8-3 million tons of sugar this year (down from 3.2 million tons last year) to meet a demand of 3.8 million tons. Experts say that Pakistan has to import about 800000 tons of sugar to meet this demand. Reduced rain and productivity levels of sugar farms prompted farmers to switch to cotton. Pakistan had banned sugar imports from India fearing cheaper sugar from India will destroy its sugar production capacity. However, with the resumption of peace process and a large shortage of sugar from domestic producers seem to have changed the Government policy. The Indian Sugar Mills Association said that it could scale to exporting 800000 million tons to Pakistan; in 2000, India exported 300000 tons of sugar to Pakistan.