Sugar Mills to Lose $1.1 Billion on Record Cane: Corporate India

Sugar mills in India, the biggest producer after Brazil, are set to lose about 60 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) this year as record cane prices and surging imports prompt them to sell below production cost.

Factories in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra states, accounting for 65 percent of the nation’s output, are selling sugar at least 11 percent below cost, Abinash Verma, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, said in a phone interview. Producers may report financial losses if a slump in sugar prices isn’t stemmed by halting cheap imports, said Vivek Saraogi, managing director of Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd.