BANGKOK: Thailand expects to export 9 million tonnes of sugar in the production year 2022/23, up 17% from a year earlier, the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board said on Friday.

Thailand expects to produce 11.5 million tonnes of sugar, crushing 106 million tonnes of sugarcane at the end of the season in March, Samart Noiwan, director of the board’s strategy and planning division, told Reuters.

Thailand consumes 2.5 million tonnes of sugar per year, he said.

This year’s production of sugarcane has returned to a 100 million tonne level for the first time since 2019 due to favourable global prices that prompted farmers to grow more crops and sufficient rainfall, Samart said.

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In 2021/22, Thailand produced 10.15 million tonnes of sugar, crushing 92.07 million tonnes of sugarcane and exported 7.69 million tonnes of sugar.