Sugar output in India may drop to a 3-year low next season on dry weather

Sugar output in India may drop to a three-year low next season from a record as dry weather shrivels cane plants in some major growing areas of the country.

Production in India, which vies with Brazil as the world’s top grower, may slide to 28 million to 29 million tons in the year that begins Oct. 1 from 33 million tons this year, said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.

Droughts are withering cane fields in parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, and the monsoon is delayed, reducing prospects for the coming crop. A lower harvest