India to produce surplus sugar for sixth straight year - industry body

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India, the world's second biggest sugar producer after Brazil, is likely to churn out a surplus for the sixth straight year despite erratic rainfall in key growing areas, a leading industry body said in its preliminary estimate on Friday.

The south Asian country is likely to produce 28 million tonnes in the 2015/16 year starting Oct. 1, compared with local demand of about 25 million tonnes, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said in a statement.

In the current season, the country is likely to produce 28.3 million tonnes sugar, it said.

The surplus production could depress local prices and increase losses of debt-ridden sugar mills, prompting the country to maintain exports to trim rising inventory.

The production of top producing western state of Maharashtra could drop 7.6 percent to 9.7 million tonnes due to scanty rains in cane growing areas, it said.

In the second biggest sugar producing state of Uttar Pradesh, production could rise 3.5 percent to 7.35 million tonnes. The country is likely to start the new season with a carry-forward stock of 10.2 million tonnes.

The area under sugar cane is largely unchanged at around 5.36 million hectares for the next season, it said.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)