• India set for sugar export comeback in 2025/26 season
• Domestic needs, ethanol output met, leaving exportable surplus
• Exports may pressure global prices already falling on Brazil output

India's sugar industry could make a significant return to the global market during the new 2025/2026 season, which begins on October 1, according to Ashwini Srivastava, the joint secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.

Srivastava told Reuters that a favorable sugar production outlook, coupled with satisfying domestic consumption and biofuel needs, points to a substantial exportable surplus.

He explained that a record 4.8 billion liters of ethanol was expected to be produced in the new season from sugarcane-based feedstocks. He added that domestic consumption was projected to increase to between 28.5 and 29 million tons, up from 28 million this year.

While no details have been released on the specific volume to be exported, market observers believe it will be larger than the 1 million-ton stock approved for export during the current season, which ends this month.

According to analysts, the unrestricted resumption of Indian sugar exports could further pressure global prices. Prices are already weighed down by positive production forecasts in Brazil, the world's leading sugar producer. On Friday, September 5, the Sugar No. 11 contract hit 15.5 cents per pound on the ICE Exchange, its lowest level in more than four years.

Espoir Olodo