India's 2018/19 sugar exports seen at 2-4mn tonnes

NEW DELHI: India is likely to export 2 million to 4 million tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 marketing year starting next month as production could hit an all-time high, a senior industry official said on Thursday.

The world's second-biggest producer's sugar output is seen at 33 million to 35 million tonnes against 32.3 million tonnes produced a year earlier, said the chief of commodities consultancy LMC International.

"The world sugar market will find it hard to absorb more than 2 to 4 million tonnes of sugar in the next 12 months because there is reasonably enough sugar out there," Martin Todd, managing director of LMC International, said on the sidelines of Kingsman Asia Sugar Conference in New Delhi.

India has been struggling to export its massive surplus as prices in the world market are trading at steep discounts to local prices.