It is reported by Nasdaq.

Lower sugar output from India, the world's biggest producer of the sweetener, will leave hardly any surplus for additional exports during the current 20022-23 season.

The government allowed mills to export only 6.1 million tonnes of sugar in the 2022-23 season, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration was expected to allow a second tranche of shipments.

Dampening speculation that India would permit the second tranche, government sources in mid-January said India was not looking at allowing more sugar exports.

India's absence from the market could lift global prices SBc1, LSUc1 and allow rivals Brazil and Thailand to increase shipments.

India exported a record 11.2 million tonnes of sugar in the previous 2021-22 season.

The Indian Sugar Mills Association in late January cut its 2022-23 output estimates by 7% to 34 million tonnes from the previous forecast of 36.5 million tonnes. Last year Indian mills produced a record 35.8 million tonnes of sugar.

Unfavourable weather conditions have hit the sugar cane crop in the western state of Maharashtra, the country's biggest producer, cutting crop yields.

Reuters was first to report in December on the likely drop in production.

The Indian Sugar Mills Association said 194 mills have closed operations during the 2022-23 season so far, against 78 in the same period a year earlier, reflecting lower sugar cane availability.

More than two dozen mills in Maharashtra stopped cane crushing by the end of February, nearly two months earlier than last year, because of adverse weather.