BackSugar production in India may surge to eight-year high on yields
Production may total more than 27 million tonnes in the year that began on 1 October, says the Indian Sugar Mills Association
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New Delhi: Sugar output in India, the world’s biggest producer after Brazil, will climb to the highest level since 2007 as cane yields increase, a mills’ group said.
Production may total more than 27 million tonnes in the year that began on 1 October, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. That would be the highest since 2006-07 and compares with 24.4 million tonnes last season, data from the association show. Output jumped 14% to 26.4 million tonnes by 15 April, it said.
Rising supplies from India to Thailand threaten to widen a global surplus for a fifth year and pressure prices that have fallen 10% in New York this year. Global production in the year ending Sept. 30 will exceed demand by 620,000 tonnes, leaving record stockpiles of 79.89 million tonnes, or almost enough to supply the world’s top seven consuming countries, data from London-based International Sugar Organization show.
“Higher cane yields in Maharashtra and an increase in sugar recovery in Uttar Pradesh are helping production," Abinash Verma, director general of the association, said by phone from New Delhi on Thursday.
India’s sugar stockpiles will expand to more than 9 million tonnes by the end of September from 7.5 million tonnes a year earlier, the association said. The government should buy 3 million tonnes from mills to absorb the surplus and allow domestic prices to improve, it said.
Sugar prices have fallen below the cost of production across India to a seven-year low due to weak demand and mounting stockpiles, the association said. Mills owe ₹ 19,300 crore ($3 billion) to farmers, as much as 35% of the total money payable to the growers this season, the association said. Bloomberg
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