MUMBAI: India's cabinet has approved raising the price that sugar mills must pay for cane in the next season beginning Oct. 1, to 285 rupees per 100 kg, up from 275 rupees a year earlier, a minister told reporters on Wednesday.

The government raises the floor price for cane every year, but Uttar Pradesh state, the country's top cane producer, invariably raises the floor price further due to its millions of cane growers, an influential voting bloc.