PUNE: Industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association slashed its sugar production estimate by 9 per cent from its September estimate and sugar prices are expected to rise by about 7 per cent to 8 per cent. However, sufficient availability of sugar for domestic demand and fear of government action are likely keep sugar prices on a leash. ISMA released its second advance estimate of sugar production for 2016-17 on Wednesday in Hyderabad, bringing down the production estimate to 21.3 million tonnes from its earlier estimate of 23.4 lakh tonnes issued in September 2016. This will be lowest sugar production of the country in the past seven years.ISMA president T Sarita Reddy said the association has come out with a realistic figure of production estimate and that it will not impact the sugar prices as he industry was already aware about it. However, government sources said sugar production was going to remain at 22.5 lakh tonnes, same as earlier estimates.

Source: Economic Times January 26, 2017 10:16 UTC