Sugar Output in India Seen Jumping as Subsidy Boosts Exports

Sugar output in India, the world’s largest producer after Brazil, is set to climb for the first time in three years as a subsidy for raw exports and abundant dam water spur farmers to increase planting.

Production may gain 5 percent to 25 million metric tons in the harvesting season starting Oct. 1, said M.G. Joshi, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd., which accounts for 48 percent of the national output. The area under the crop will increase in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the biggest growers, he said.