NUSA DUA, Aug 28: Indian sugar exports have crossed two million tons in the crop year to Sept 30, well up on earlier forecasts, and could rise even further next year, a private trader said on Tuesday.

Exports in 2007-08 could reach five million tons if aided by weakness in the rupee, Sandeep Bhura of the India Trading Company told Reuters at the Asia International Sugar Conference.

These figures are far ahead of 1.5 million tons of exports in 2006-07 and around 3.0 million tons for 2007-08 forecast by India’s Minister for State and Agriculture, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, last month.

A big surplus of Indian sugar has been the main factor weighing down world sugar prices to close to 21-month lows, at 9.5 US cents a pound.

S.L. Jain, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, told Reuters on Tuesday that exports of more than 2 million tons so far this year were possible but making accurate predictions was difficult.

Jain, also chief executive of the Indian Sugar Exim Corp Ltd, said he doubted that Indian sugar exports would rise as high as five million tons in 2007-08.

Bhura, whose India Trading Co is one of the larger privately-owned family sugar trading companies, said many smaller trades are adding to big export deals, such as the path-breaking sale of 200,000 tons of raw sugar to Dubai’s al-Khaleej refinery in June.Jain said at the time of the Dubai sale that no further big Indian raw sugar sales would take place at world prices of less than 10 US cents a pound.

But Bhura said on Tuesday that smaller sales of mostly refined sugar were taking place on a daily basis to North Africa, the Middle East, some Gulf countries and Pakistan.

Small amounts were also being sold to the more distant market of Indonesia, he said.

New markets, such as Ethiopia, Syria, Nigeria and Uganda were all taking Indian sugar, he said. Sizeable quantities were also going to Iraq and Iran, with Iran mainly supplied through Dubai, he added. —Reuters