Sugar output may rise to 18.1 MT this season: Pawar

The government today said the country's sugar production may touch 18-18.1 million tonnes in the current season ending September, a 13 per cent increase over the earlier estimate of 16 million tonnes (MT).

However, the output is still much short of India's annual demand of 23 MT.

"The sugar output may go up to 18-18.1 MT in the current season," Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told reporters here.

In the beginning of the season, the government had estimated sugar production at 16 MT against 14.7 MT in the last season.

According to official data, the country is estimated to have produced 16.7 MT of sugar in the first six months of the 2009-10 season.

Going by Pawar's estimates, as much as 1.4 MT of sugar is likely to be produced in the remaining period of the sugar season, which runs from October to September.

The minister has been indicating a possible rise in sugar production in the last few weeks after receiving positive trends from the country's top two sugar producing states -- Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh-- where cane yields have increased, boosting crushing in mills.

While the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) recently revised sugar output estimates upwards to 18 MT after the mills reported that they are able to crush more due to increased supply of cane.

It said production in Maharashtra may increase to 6.3-6.5 MT from the earlier estimate of below 5 MT, while output in Uttar Pradesh may rise to 5.2 MT from 4.1 MT this year.

At present, sugar prices have cooled down to Rs 34 a kg in the Delhi retail markets, from Rs 47 a kg in January.

To augment domestic supply, India, the world's largest consumer of the sweetener, has since April 2009 imported 4.73 MT of raw sugar and 0.87 MT of its white variety after the Centre abolished customs duty on it last year.