The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revised its estimate of India’s sugar production in the ongoing 2010-11 sugar year slightly upward to 24 million tonnes (mt), but this is still lower than the government’s forecast of 24.5 mt. Earlier, USDA had pegged the country’s sugar production at 23.6 million tonnes during the ongoing 2010-11 sugar year.
USDA said in its latest report that it has revised India’s sugar production forecast to 24 mt from its previous estimate after taking into account higher cane output of 340.5 mt in the 2010-11 sugar year.
Production in top two sugar producing states — Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh — is expected to be 9.3 mt tonnes and 6.2 mt, respectively, this year, it said. Higher production is expected particularly in central and southern India, as output in these regions is likely to be better following well distributed rain, it said.
