Indian sugar futures rose on Wednesday after a leading producer said plantings for the new crop would likely drop because of tight profit margins, and bolstered by firm spot prices. At 3:41 pm (1011 GMT), the near-month contract on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange was up 0.31 percent at 1,274 rupees ($32.2) per 100 kg.
The December contracts rose 0.33 percent to 1,231 rupees. Plantings set to begin in November for the next crop could see a decline of 20 percent, Narendra Murkumbi, managing director of Sherrie Ranker Sugars Ltd, a leading producer, told a seminar on Tuesday.
The crop takes about 13 months for harvest. Traders said the news was only mildly positive because of the supply overhang from a forecast record sugar output of 33.15 million tonnes in India in the crop year that began on October 1. "The positive movement will be short-lived as there is a glut in the market at present," an analyst in the southern city of Hyderabad said.