India needs to export six million tonnes of sugar in the 2020-21 marketing year, which started this month, as production is estimated to increase 13 per cent to 31 million tonnes on higher availability of sugarcane, trade body Isma said on Monday.

The output has been estimated after taking into account a likely diversion of about 2 million tonnes of cane juice and B molasses for ethanol production, it said. In the 2019-20 season (October-September), sugar production remained lower at 27.42 million tonnes and diversion to ethanol was about 0.8 mt.

Since higher production is forecast for the 2020-21 season, Isma said India will need to continue to export about 6 million tonnes of surplus sugar this season.

With higher availability of sugarcane and surplus sugar production, it is estimated that a larger quantity of cane juice /syrup and B-molasses will get diverted to ethanol.