India is unlikely to export sugar in 2023-24 season as output will be less than a year earlier, Kona Haque, head of research at ED&F Man Commodities said on Thursday. Nearly a month ago government sources told Reuters that India is expected to ban mills from exporting sugar in the next season beginning October, halting shipments for the first time in seven years after lack of rain cut cane yields. India's absence from the world market would be likely to increase benchmark prices in New York and London that are already trading around multi-year highs, triggering fears of further inflation on global food markets.
Sugar output in Maharashtra, India's top producing state, is likely to fall 14% in the 2023/24 crop year to its lowest in four years due to lower cane yields following the driest August in more than a century, industry and government officials told Reuters on Wednesday. The reduced output could add to food inflation and discourage New Delhi from allowing sugar exports, supporting global prices which are already near their highest in more than a decade. Higher domestic prices will, however, improve margins for producers such as Balrampur Chini, Dwarikesh Sugar, Shree Renuka Sugars and Dalmia Bharat Sugar, helping them make payments on time to farmers.
PARIS (Reuters) -Sugar maker Saint Louis Sucre, owned by Germany's Suedzucker, asked French farmers not to increase their beet output in 2024 to avoid a fall in prices amidst hefty competition from Ukrainian sugar, copies of a letter seen by Reuters show. European sugar prices have hit record highs, well above soaring global markets, due to a sugar deficit in the bloc, linked notably to falling output in France where farmers have been deterred by poor harvests in recent years. But the war in Ukraine has led to large imports of sugar into the bloc, raising fears of a surplus, such as in 2017 after the European Union lifted production quotas, which led to a collapse in prices.