India to start new sugar season with 37% higher stocks

India, the world's biggest sugar consumer, is likely to start the 2015/16 marketing year on Oct.1 with carry-forward stocks of 10.3 million tonnes, up 37 percent from the current year, an industry body said on Wednesday.

The world's second-biggest sugar producer is likely to export mere 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes of the sweetener in the current season ending September despite producing nearly 28 million tonnes, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said in a statement.

Mills have managed to export 558,000 tonne sugar so far in the current season and are struggling to export more as global prices drop to the lowest since 2009, it said.