Sugar cane crushing gains momentum in India: trade body

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Sugar cane crushing in India has gained momentum and mills have produced more sugar than a year ago due to higher processing in the second biggest producing western state of Maharashtra, a leading trade body said on Tuesday.

Indian mills produced 3.97 million tonnes of sugar in the first two months of the 2018/19 marketing year started on Oct. 1, up 1.5 percent from a year ago, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement.

Maharashtra's production during the period rose 21 percent from a year ago to 1.8 million tonnes, while Uttar Pradesh churned out 950,000 tonnes, down over a quarter from a year ago, the trade body said.

The world's biggest sugar consumer is likely to produce 31.5 million tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 marketing year that started on Oct. 1, against local demand of around 26 million tonnes.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; editing by David Evans)