Mexico City, July 3 - Mexico's sugar production will fall to between 5.1 million and 5.2 million tonnes in the 2008/9 season, a drop of up to 7.3 percent from the current cycle, the national sugar chamber said on Thursday.
"The upcoming harvest is going to come in low because of climatic reasons," said Juan Cortina, the chairman of the chamber, which groups the country's millers.
Mexico is closing the current 2007/8 season with sugar production at 5.5 million tonnes.
Cortina spoke to Reuters before an event with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announcing new support for the country's sugar industry.
"With these agreements ... we can put in motion a lot of new investment that will allow us to increase production to around 7.5 million tonnes in 2012," Cortina said.
He said a future jump in production would allow Mexico to export more sugar to the United States since all trade barriers in sweeteners between the two countries were lifted at the beginning of the year.
The U.S. state of Florida announced last month it would spent $1.75 billion to buy a large chunk of land in the delicate Everglades owned by U.S. Sugar Corp to protect the wildlife there, forcing the giant firm out of business.
Cortina said the shut down is good news for the Mexican sugar industry, opening up more opportunities to fill potential shortfalls in the United States.
Mexico consumes about 5 million tonnes of the sugar it produces each year, he said.
The country has not yet been able to significantly raise its output to send large amounts of sugar abroad.
The estimate Cortina gave for the upcoming 2008/9 harvest is in line with the outlook expected by sugar cane growers.
Last month, Carlos Blackaller, the head of the sugar cane growers union, told Reuters that Mexico would produce between 5.2 million and 5.3 million tonnes in the 2008-2009 cycle.