Floods hit Indian sugar cane crop

The sugarcane crop in India’s third-biggest sugar producing state has been partly damaged due to recent floods, according to Indian press reports.

A survey by the state government was quoted that floods in the southern state of Karnataka damaged cane crop on 66,022 hectares of farmland and the loss was likely to be around 5 billion rupees ($106 million).

Sugar output in India, the world’s top consumer and second-biggest producer behind Brazil, dropped more than 40% to about 15 million tonnes in 2008/09 (October-September) due to a shortage of cane, forcing the country to allow tax-free imports. Sugar prices in the country have surged more than 73%.