Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar expressed confidence that sugar production in India would touch a record 25 million tonnes in the current sugar year, more than the country’s requirement.

“On the sugar front too, the news this year is good with record plantation of sugarcane. I am confident of 250 lakh tonnes of sugar production this sugar year,” Pawar said at the Economic Editors’ Conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

For the first time, India will have surplus production of sugar, whereas there is a shortage the world-over, he added.

The sugar year runs from October to September.

Earlier, industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) had also pegged the country’s sugar output at over 25 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year.

Sugar production in India, the world’s second largest producer and the biggest consumer, was around 19 million tonnes in the sugar year ended September, 2010, up from 14 million tonnes in the previous year.

Domestic demand for the sweetener in the country is pegged at 23 million tonnes in the current sugar year, which will lead to a situation where the country has surplus sugar output.

Pawar had earlier indicated that the government will consider allowing sugar exports after the Diwali festival, based on the overall demand-supply situation.

Although there is no official ban on sugar exports, the Food Ministry has not been giving export permits since 2009.

The government recently allowed mills to fulfill their export obligation of about 9,50,000 tonnes by the deadline of March, 2011.