India faces two years of sugar surplus, growers and officials say
SATARA, India, June 9 (Reuters) - India is set to produce surplus sugar for at least two consecutive years, as millions of farmers expand the area under sugarcane cultivation amid ample rainfall, boosting crop yields, growers and industry officials said.
The rebound in production would allow the world's second-largest sugar producer to increase exports in 2025/26, they said, after poor rainfall cut sugarcane yields and led to two years of export restrictions.
"Sugarcane usually gives us good returns, but sometimes we can't plant it due to a lack of water," said Umesh Jagtap as he planted the crop on a three-acre plot in Maharashtra, a leading sugar producing state in the west.
"This year, we had heavy rain in May, and the forecast says more rain is on the way. So we're planning to plant more than usual."
Farmers from Maharashtra and neighbouring Karnataka struggle to irrigate their sugarcane crop in May. This year, however, Maharashtra and Karnataka received 1,007% and 234% more rainfall than average, respectively.
The rainfall will benefit the crop to be harvested in the 2025/26 season, starting October, and will also support planting for the 2026/27 harvest, said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF).
Sugarcane typically takes 10 to 18 months from planting to harvest. As a result, farmers who began planting this month are expected to harvest their crop during the 2026/27 season.
The NFCSF estimates gross sugar production in 2025/26 to rise by nearly a fifth from a year earlier, reaching 35 million metric tons.
For the 2024/25 marketing year to September, India's net sugar production is expected to fall below consumption for the first time in eight years.
This decline stems from a 2023 drought that hit sugarcane planting and forced India to prohibit sugar exports in 2023/24 and allowing merely 1 million tons in 2024/25.
India was the world's No. 2 sugar exporter during the five years to 2022/23, with volumes averaging 6.8 million tons annually.
"Looks like production is set to bounce back strongly, so New Delhi will probably have no trouble allowing exports of over 3 million tons in the next season starting October," said a Mumbai-based trader with a global trade house.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Before crash, Air India spent years attempting a turnaround after emerging from government control
The deadly crash of an Air India flight carrying more than 240 people on Thursday arrives after years of attempts to turn around the country's flag carrier — which had been plagued by tragedy and financial losses under prior state ownership. In 2010, an Air India flight arriving from Dubai overshot the runway in the city of Mangalore and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 people out of the 166 on board. And in 2020, a flight for Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, skidded off a runway in Southern India during heavy rain and cracked in two — killing 18 people and injuring more than 120 others. Both of those incidents involved older Boeing 737-800 aircrafts — and occurred while Air India was still under governmental control. Indian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the carrier to private ownership after it was run by the state for decades. The 180 billion rupee (then worth $2.4 billion) deal was in some ways a homecoming for Air India, with roots that date back to the Tata family's founding of what was then-called Tata Airlines in 1932. It was also part of an wider effort to save the airline — which had become a money-losing, debt-saddled operation. Jitendra Bhargava, former executive director of the airline and author of 'The Descent of Air India,' said government ownership fostered an archaic work culture, outdated processes, and management by bureaucrats unfamiliar with the aviation industry. 'You are getting a recipe for disaster. And we went through it," Bhargava told The Associated Press. As a result, he said, the company hemorrhaged money — which had a 'cascading effect' because it couldn't invest in upgrades. By the time of the Tata Sons takeover, Air India's market share was around 12% and at risk of shrinking as competitors expanded. Bhargava and other aviation experts stress that shedding government control was necessary for Air India to compete with other private rivals — and the carrier has since worked to reinvent itself by modernizing both its operations and fleet. Over recent years, Air India redesigned its branding and ordered hundreds of new planes from both Boeing and Airbus. Analysts don't expect Thursday's crash, which involved a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, to change such partnerships. "Admittedly, Air India and the Tata organization have been very proud about the fact that they've made a major commitment to Boeing," said Anita Mendiratta, an aviation and leadership consultant. While acknowledging that Boeing has been bruised in recent years, largely due to problems with its 737 Max, Mendiratta noted that there's still been a 'hunger' from airlines around the world to add the company's new planes to their fleets after recent delivery delays. That includes demand for the 787 Dreamliner — which, she said, is 'one of the most important aircraft when it comes to sustainable aviation, emissions reduction, managing the costs of aviation.' Boeing has been plagued by its own safety issues, including past deadly crashes. This, however, was the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. And the cause of Thursday's crash is still unclear. An international investigation is underway, and Boeing has said it's 'working to gather more information.' Air India said it's also working to get answers around what caused the crash — while promising to support those impacted by the tragedy. 'This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India,' CEO Campbell Wilson said in recorded remarks. 'Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones.' Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, added in a statement that 'no words can adequately express the grief we feel at this moment.' He said that the company would provide 10 million rupees (nearly $116,795) to the families of each person "who has lost their life in this tragedy' — and also cover medical expenses of anyone who was injured. The Boeing 787 crashed into a medical college after takeoff in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad. A single passenger survived the crash, according to a senior Indian official. But the airline said there were no other survivors. A local official put the latest death toll at 240, including some victims on the ground. Beyond the fatal accidents in 2010 and 2020, an Air India Boeing 747 flight also crashed into the Arabian Sea in 1978, killing all 213 aboard. The carrier was under government control from 1953 through 2022. Other fatal accidents involving India's state-owned airlines include the more than 50 people who died in a crash in the eastern city of Patna in 2000. In 1993, a flight crashed in the western city Aurangabad, killing 55. In 1988, over 130 died when a plane crashed while landing in Ahmedabad and in 1991, a crash near northeastern city Imphal killed 69 people aboard. __________ Grantham-Philips reported from New York and Ghosal reported from Hanoi. AP Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Air India disaster deals heavy blow to 'world class airline' ambition
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Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The Brits on board doomed Air India crash: Couple and daughter, four, wellness influencers and award-winning hotel manager with his family are among passengers feared dead in Ahmedabad tragedy
A family-of-three, a wellness influencer couple, an award-winning hotel manager travelling with his wife and two children and a widow, her grandson and daughter-in-law are among the Brits who were on board the doomed Air India plane. This morning, the Gatwick-bound plane carrying 242 passengers, including 53 British nationals, crashed just moments after take-off in from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner careened back down to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1.40pm local time (8.10am BST). All but one person aboard Air India Flight 171 are feared to have died in the tragedy. MailOnline can reveal that among them were Akeel Nanawaba, Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sarah, Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, Javed Ali Syed, his wife and two children and Raxa Modha, her grandson Rudra and her daughter-in-law Yasha Kamdar. The sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was seated in 11A, is also British and told the Hindustan Times he had lived in London for 20 years. Akeel Nanawaba, 36, his wife Hannaa Vorajee, 30, and their daughter Sarah, four, were flying home from a five-day family celebration when the Dreamliner crashed. The successful young couple ran a global recruitment agency with offices in Ahmedabad and Gloucester. Their shocked business partner Shoyeb Khan Nagori told MailOnline: 'I had dinner with them last night. They were a lovely family and Akeel and his wife were extremely successful people.' Mr Nagori said he was too upset to find the words to describe their daughter Sarah who had spent time with her grandfather during the brief visit. He said: 'They were here to celebrate a family festival and to spend some time with Akeel's father. 'Akeel was a really good man, I'm in shock, we were all having dinner together the night before.' Mr Nagori was with hundreds of other relatives of crash victims waiting for updates at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. He founded recruitment company Iceberg Outsourcing Services with Mr Nanbawa, who was the managing director. Hannaa, a trained midwife, was head of finance with a sister company called Rec2go Ltd, also based in Gloucester. The second family feared to have been killed included an award-winning hotel manager, his wife and their two children. Javed Ali Syed, a hotel manager at the Best Western Kensington Olympia Hotel and his wife Mariam were passengers on the fallen Air India Flight 171 this morning. Their two young children, Amani, four, and Zayn, were also on board the flight. Mr Syed was an award winning hotelier having previously received a Team Member of the Year award, while working for the Comfort Inn London in Westminster in 2017. Recently widowed Raxa Modha, 55, her grandson two-year-old Rudra, and her daughter-in-law Yasha Kamdar are all believed to have been onboard the ill-fated airliner. Mrs Modha had been in India for some time fulfilling the dying wish of her ill husband Kishor who had wanted to live out his last days in his homeland. Following his recent passing, the mother-of-three was returning with her family to their home in Northamptonshire when disaster struck this morning. In a twist of fate, Kishan Modha – the toddler's father and Raxa's son – had also been in India but was not on the flight as he was due to catch another flight tomorrow. Speaking to MailOnline, a family friend said: 'It's incredibly sad, the whole family is already grieving Kishor's death. 'Kishan fortunately was getting on another flight, but we don't know what has happened to the others.' Neighbours at the family's detached home in Wellingborough said Mrs Modha is a 'lovely lady'. They said she had been in India for an extended period to support her husband who was battling an illness. The respected businessman, who launched a successful catering business after settling in the UK in 1989, died on April 26. The family were due to hold a service in his memory later this month. In a memorial for him, the family said he was a 'cherished husband' to Raxa and 'proud grandfather to Rudra, who brought him immense joy'. The mayor for Wellingborough, Raj Mishra offered his condolences to the family on a post on Facebook adding it was devastating for the local community. 'I extend my deepest condolences to their families, friends, and all those affected by this heartbreaking event,' he added. British celebrity wellness guru Jamie Meek and his husband are also believed to have perished after they posted a haunting video of themselves at the airport waiting to board the Air India flight. Mr Meek, 45, and husband Fiongal Greenlaw, 39, who live in London, run a wellness and healthy lifestyle company called the Wellness Foundry, and had been in India on holiday. In a chilling final social media video posted from Ahmedabad airport as they waited to board their doomed flight the couple were dressed in flowery shirts looking happy at the end of their break. In the clip, Fiongal says: 'We are at the airport just boarding. Goodbye India. Ten-hour flight back to England. What was your biggest takeaway Jamie? Jamie replies: 'I don't know,' with his partner laughing and responding: 'Thanks for your contribution.' Fiongal than jokes that his biggest takeaway was 'don't lose your patience with your partner' to which Jamie responds with a smile: 'You snapped at me at the airport for having chai.' As other passengers mill in the background, Fiongal laughs at the camera and reveals that he is going back to Britain 'happily, happily calm.' Mr Meek's brother, Nick Meek, told MailOnline: 'We were expecting him home tonight. He should have landed at 6.30pm and then driven up for about 11pm to get his dog who is staying with our Mum. 'She is not in a good way. It is all very raw for her at the moment. It's a lot to take in and we only heard this news a couple of hours ago. 'Jamie and his husband Fin had been out there for 10 days as a couple to do a wellness retreat. 'They both worked in holistics and had their own business.' The caretaker from Birmingham said it was not the first time his brother had been to India but it was the first time they had gone as a couple. He said that his brother and Fin had married in 2022 and lived in Ramsgate, Kent. In other videos posted by the couple, they showed the stunning hotel they were staying in while in Ahmedabad having completed a seven-hour car journey. Fiongal lies on a large bed as he speaks to the camera, showing off a giant swing in their room and describes the hotel as 'beautiful. He beams: 'Feeling very, very happy.' The couple captured the happy time they had in India in a series of social media posts. This included getting henna tattoos, shopping for fine fabrics and other gifts and driving through chaotic traffic in a tuk-tuk. They arrived in Ahmedabad just a day before flying back with Fiongal posting in a video: 'So, it's our last night in India and we've had a magical experience. Some mind-blowing things have happened. 'We are going to put all this together and create a vlog. It's my first ever vlog about the whole trip and we want to share it.' Jamie revealed what a memorable trip they had both had: 'We have been on quite a journey and then spending our last night here in this beautiful hotel, it's really been great way to round off the trip.' According to its website, The Wellness Foundry was founded by Fiongal in 2018 after he had a 'spiritual awakening' following a mysterious illness. The website adds: 'Seeking healing beyond conventional methods, Fiongal delved into alternative practices that resonated deeply within his soul.' The company specialises in tarot and psychic readings, reiki and other alternative spiritual therapies. British father Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was filmed walking out from the rubble after some how miraculously surviving the catastrophic crash. Speaking to local media from the safety of a hospital bed, the passenger who was in seat 11A said: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.' 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. 'There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.' Astonishing footage showed the passenger walking away from the scene with some visible injuries. Vishwash, who was returning home to London after visiting family, sustained injuries to his chest, eyes and feet, he told the Hindustan Times. The regional police chief said 'some locals would have also died', given that the plane smashed down into offices and accommodation for doctors close to a hospital. So far, rescue teams supported by the military have recovered 204 bodies, with casualties from the plane and the area surrounding the crash. The passengers included 159 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian. Eleven of those on board were children, including two newborns. Aviation experts say that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may have suddenly lost power 'at the most critical phase of flight' after takeoff. The possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike leading to a double engine stall. Officials from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are now at the scene to carry out an analysis of the wreckage and retrieve the stricken jet's black box. Videos shared on social media showed the aircraft rapidly losing altitude - with its nose up - before it hit a building and erupted in a violent explosion.
