India set to become surplus sugar producer

LONDON (Reuters) - India, which has had a big impact on global sugar prices because of swings between being a net importer and a net exporter of the sweetener, is set for a sustained period as a net exporter in coming years, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.

Barring an extreme weather event, the world's second-biggest sugar producer and the top sugar consumer is set to cement its position as a net exporter because of remunerative sugarcane prices, the director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), Abinash Verma, told an industry seminar.

The Indian sugar industry is becoming structurally a surplus producer, Verma said in a keynote address to the two-day International Sugar Organization (ISO) seminar.

"A surplus is expected in the next few years at least," Verma said, adding that he expects surpluses to average about 10 percent of annual domestic production.

(Reporting by David Brough; Editing by David Goodman)