INDIA: Delays seen for future imports
Published: 03/18/2010, 12:40:35 PM
India will delay sugar imports until later this year as the farm minister says output may hit 17 million metric tonnes and top producer Brazil will provide enough sweetner from its crop to lower prices further, according to Reuters.
That helped push New York raw sugar futures SBc1 down on expectations of less imports by the world's biggest consumer.
Still, analysts said higher output in the current season to September would still be well below local demand of 23 million tonnes, keeping Indian mills on track to import about 3 million tonnes more sugar this year, although domestic prices may drop.
"According to information by states it looks like production will be 16.8 million tonnes. ISMA has agreed to this figure but my personal assessment is that production will cross 17 million tonnes this year," Sharad Pawar told a conference.
Veeresh Hiremath, a senior analyst with commodity brokerage Karvy Comtrade, said the forecast rise by Pawar was too meagre to obviate import needs.
"India still needs to import some more sugar," Hiremath said.
But analysts believe the country would have to resume sugar imports by mid-year to build buffer for September when fall festivals start in India that increase sugar demand.