There was also buying interest from other countries, but the overall size of the purchases was small compared with the large Thai sugar cane crop of around 50 million tonnes being crushed, they told Reuters.

"Russia bought around 30,000-40,000 tonnes of raws, mostly through Tate & Lyle. Indonesia bought whites, but in small quantities. The rest are from regular buyers," said a trader at a major Japanese house. "Indonesia is really an enigma. We don't know what is the real sugar situation there," he said. But the demand improvement in the Thai market was clouded by the larger than expected local sugar cane crop. By March 25, Thai mills had crushed more than 49.1 million tonnes of sugar cane to produce 5.08 million tonnes of raw and white sugar.

The Cane and Sugar Corp recently revised its crop forecast for the 1998/1999 crushing season starting November to 50million tonnes, a far cry from the original projection of 42.6 million tonnes.

Thai raw sugar premiums for May/July deliveries were quoted at 25/30 points per pound over New York's Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange (CSCE) on FOB basis. July/September were quoted at 60/65 points per pound over New York on the same basis.