Sugar prices fell from a two-month high as traders and investment funds waited for India, the world’s second-largest producer, to permit duty-free imports of the sweetener. India may amend rules to suspend a 60 percent tariff on sugar imports for the local market after domestic output trailed forecasts, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said last week. The South Asian country may import as much as 2 million metric tons of raw sugar this year, Adani Enterprises Ltd., India’s biggest private trader of farm goods, said yesterday. “The market is reacting to no news from India regarding passing that legislation,” said Anthony Compagnino, a partner at East Coast Options Services in New York. “We thought the news would come out today.” Raw-sugar futures for March delivery fell 0.15 cent, or 1.2 percent, to 12.45 cents a pound at 10:11 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. A close at that price would mark the biggest loss for a most-active contract since Jan. 12. Sugar had rallied 6.7 percent this month, to 12.68 cents yesterday, the highest since Nov. 5, on speculation that India will import the sweetener for the first time since 2006 to cover a deficit in local supplies. “The market has done quite a bit on the upside,” Compagnino said, adding that he expects prices to pull back to 12.1 cents in the next day or two. Indian production may total 18 million metric tons in the year ending Sept. 30, about 2 million tons less than forecast last month, because of lower yields, Pawar said on Jan. 20.

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