NEW DELHI, Sept 26: India is likely to produce more than 30 million tons of sugar in the new season beginning in October, up from an estimated 28.3 million in the current year, a top trade official said on Wednesday.
“Cane planting is very good and production will be in excess of 30m tons, some people say it will be 31m,” Vinay Kumar, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, told reporters.
“We hope to export three million tons in the new season, both whites and raws, to clear domestic stocks,” he said on the sidelines of an industry meeting.
Of total exports, a million tons would be in the form of raw sugar, which would be sold mainly to China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Dubai. India has exported 1.8m tons of sugar, mostly whites, in the current year.
India is expected to overtake Brazil as the world’s top sugar producer in 2007/08 and a lack of storage may force it to sell at lower prices later this year, the International Sugar Organisation (ISO) said this month.
The London-based organisation forecast in a monthly report Indian sugar output in the new season beginning in October at an all-time high of 33.15 million tons, up eight per cent on year.
