White sugar prices have hit a record high, fuelled by expectations that Indian imports and a rain-hampered Brazilian crop will continue tightening the market.

London white sugar for October hit $513.0 a tonne, the highest since the commodity began trading on Liffe in July 1983, as concerns continued to mount of a second successive weak harvest in India, the world's biggest sugar consumer.

The latest data showed monsoon rains 18% below normal in the last week of July, following the worst start to the season in 80 years, raising concerns of another year of low plantings.

A shift by farmers from cane to grain turned India into a net importer of sugar over the last year, with BNP Paribas Fortis forecasting that  foreign purchases could reach 5m tonnes in 2009-10.

The country last week extended beyond the end of July a period of duty-free sugar imports in an effort to support supplies and prevent prices spiralling.

'Brave man' 

Meanwhile, the harvest in Brazil, the world's biggest sugar producer and exporter, has been set back by rain, leaving Fortis to forecast that prices would be supported by a "perfect storm" of rising demand and hampered production.

"It would take a brave man to go short with all that is going on," a London trader told Agrimoney.com.

In New York, raw sugar for October hit a fresh three-year high of 19.46 cents a pound before dropping back to 19.38 cents a pound in late trade, up 0.24 cents on the day.

London sugar closed $9.6 higher at $512.5 a tonne.