INTERVIEW - India seen as major white sugar importer

A labourer carries a sack of sugar at a wholesale market in Siliguri in this September 16, 2009 file photo.

LONDON (Reuters) - India is set to emerge as a major white sugar importer in calendar 2010, and is expected to buy some 3 million tonnes, Jonathan Kingsman, head of the Lausanne-based Kingsman SA consultancy, said on Tuesday.

He said India's requirement for whites was due to delays in production constraining mills' capacity to process raw sugar, and insufficient imports of raws to date during a period of high prices.

"India should become a major white sugar importer in calendar 2010," Kingsman told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Nov. 24-25 International Sugar Organization international seminar.

"Some whites are already going into the country, and we expect that programme to continue."

India is the world's number 1 sugar consumer.

Kingsman also said he expected Pakistan would need to import more than 500,000 tonnes of white sugar in 2010.

"The situation (in Pakistan) will be very tight."

He forecast that global sugar import demand would exceed export availability by 3-4 million tonnes in calendar 2010.

He said consumption would have to fall to meet the reduction in availability of sugar.

"Some consumption will be lost due to shortages," he said.

As farmers increase plantings around the world in response to high sugar prices, which have doubled this year, Kingsman said he expected the global sugar balance to shift from a deficit to a small surplus in 2010/11.

"First indications are that it will be a small surplus," he said.

India's strong appetite for sugar imports after a poor domestic crop, and heavy rainfall in top producer and exporter Brazil, have driven sugar prices sharply higher this year.

(Reporting by David Brough; editing by Sue Thomas)