India's sugar production in 2016/17 is likely to fall to 22 million tonnes, down 4.3 percent from an earlier estimate, as mills in its key producing state are closing early due to a cane shortage, industry officials told Reuters. 

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A drop in production below India's consumption of around 25 million tonnes could lift local prices and prompt the world's second-biggest consumer to allow duty-free imports of the sweetener, supporting global prices that are trading near their highest level in 1-1/2 months. 

In the last two years back-to-back droughts have ravaged the cane crop in Maharashtra, the country's top sugar producer."The impact of drought was much more severe in Maharashtra than we anticipated. The state could end up with production of around 4.5 million tonnes," B.B. Thombre, president of the Western India Sugar Mills Association (WISMA) told Reuters on Thursday