India’s sugar production went up by 20% to 23.38 million tonnes in the first five months of the 2020-21 marketing year over the same period of the previous year, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).

The country is the world’s second biggest sugar producer in the world and a major exporter. 

Mills have contracted to export 3.2 million tonnes of sugar so far in the current marketing year, but shipments have slowed due to a shortage of trucks and containers, the trade body said.

In the current marketing year that began on 1st October, 502 sugar mills had started operations, but 98 mills stopped crushing by February end, ISMA said in a statement. Last year 70 mills had stopped production at this point.

“Considering that the world wants Indian sugar, and the fact that sugar production is lower in countries such as Thailand and EU, India producers were looking at exporting six million tonnes of sugar this season.

However, because of the logistics bottleneck the figure may come down by 10 to 15%.