 Mumbai : Sugar output in Maharashtra, India's largest producing state, is expected to rise 45% to 6.67 million metric tons in the marketing year to Sept. 30, the junior farm and food minister said on April 20.
"As of March 31, Maharashtra's total sugar production was 5.99 million tons," K.V. Thomas said in a written reply to the lower house of Parliament.
In the 2008-09 marketing year, the state produced 4.6 million tons of sugar. The government's projection is higher than the 6.3 million-6.5 million tons forecast by the managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.
India is the world's largest consumer of sugar. The country is expected to produce 18 million-18.5 million tons of the sweeteners in 2009-10, according to industry officials.
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