India’s Sugar Output To Fall By 8% As Lower Rainfall Dent Yields: ISMA

Mumbai, Nov 1 (KNN) India’s sugar production is expected to dip by 8% to 33.7 million metric tons in the 2023/24 marketing year owing to lower rainfall in key producing states which could impact yields, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said on Tuesday.

This could lead the world’s second-largest producer of sweetener to refrain from allocating export quotas and support global prices that are trading near multi-year highs.

“Sugar production for 2023/24 without considering diversion towards ethanol has been estimated at around 33.7 million tons, against 36.6 tons estimated for 2022/23,” the ISMA said in a statement.

In August, ISMA had forecast sugar production of 36.2 million tons in the current season.

The trade body did not provide an estimate for net sugar production after the diversion of sucrose for ethanol production, but it stated that the output would exceed the country's annual consumption of 27.85 million tons.

The diversion of sugar towards ethanol will be estimated only after the government declares the annual ethanol procurement price, the ISMA said.

Sugar mills diverted 4.1 million tons of sugar for ethanol production in the last marketing year and the similar allocation could bring down the new season's output to 29.6 million tons, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.

“The impact of the dry weather in Maharashtra and Karnataka is quite evident now. There won't be enough surplus for exports, and the government is unlikely to allocate export quotas,” the dealer said.

(KNN Bureau)