Indian mills produced 26.5 million tonnes of sugar between October and May, down 19% from a year earlier, due to lower output in the drought-hit western state of Maharashtra, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said on Monday.

The country is the world's biggest sugar producer and lower output could support global prices . Mills in Maharashtra produced 6 million tonnes of sugar from Oct. 1 to May 15, down from 10.7 million tonnes during the same period a year ago, the ISMA said in a statement. Most of India's sugar mills have stopped crushing operations, the industry body said.