Shanghai, Sept 21 - Sugar production in China's main sugar producing region of Guangxi in the coming 2009/2010 crushing season is expected to be at a level similar to the previous season, despite drought worries, an analyst at Guangxi Sugar Exchange said on Monday.
Typhoon Koppu, which swept over the South China coastline last week, helped to ease the drought in the region, which contributes more than 60 percent of the country's sugar output, said the analyst, who was not authorised to speak to media in an official capacity.
"We do not expect a serious production cut if there is no further weather impact," the analyst said. "People are worrying about the autumn drought, which is common in Guangxi, but so far we have not seen the weather causing any major problems."
The analyst said floods that hit Guangxi in July had a much smaller than expected impact on sugar production. Officials have estimated that the floods could hit 10 percent of sugarcane areas in Liuzhou, a major producing area.
China produced 12.43 million tonnes of raw sugar in the 2008/2009 crushing season, down 16 percent from a year earlier. Production from sugar cane totalled 11.53 million tonnes while output from sugar beet was 901,300 tonnes.
China was the world's fourth-largest raw sugar producer in 2007, according to the International Sugar Organisation.
The key sugar futures contract traded on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange has gained nearly 10 percent in the past three months because of worries over production losses on weather problems.
China's Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai said on Monday that the country was still expecting a bumper harvest of autumn grain despite major growing areas in the northeast suffering drought and early frost.