Sugar mills in Maharashtra struck a deal on Monday with three private traders for exporting 70,000 tonne of white sugar, mainly to Yemen and Indonesia, a top industry official said.
"The deal was finalised today (on Monday) at $214 a tonne FOB (free on board) after a meeting of seven sugar mills of the state with the three exporting firms," said the official, who declined to be identified.
The commodity would be shipped within one month, he added.
India is the world's second largest sugar producer after Brazil. Maharashtra is a key sugar producing state in India and has nearly half of the country's 450-plus sugar mills.
Last week, the state had sold another 53,000 tonne of sugar to some trading firms for exports at $211 per tonne FOB, the official said.
Between December 2 and January 13, the state had struck deals to export 330,000 tonne of sugar, including contracts finalised this month, he said.
India is expected to produce about 17.5 million tonne of sugar in 2002-03 (October-September), down from 18.5 million in the previous year.
The country is expected to export 1.5-1.7 million tonne of the commodity in the current year, compared with 1.1-1.2 million in the last year, traders said.