Sugar industry

The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars. In 2017, worldwide production of table sugar amounted to 185 million tonnes.
File:TRUCKLOADS OF SUGAR BEETS WILL BE PROCESSED AT THE HOLLY SUGAR CORPORATION PLANT NEAR BRAWLEY IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY - NARA - 548983.jpg|thumb|Sugar beets awaiting processing at the Holly Sugar Corporation plant near Brawley, California in 1970
Sugar is used for soft drinks, sweetened beverages, convenience foods, fast food, candy, confectionery, baked products, and other sweetened foods. Sugarcane is used in the distillation of rum. Sugarcane produces several valuable byproducts that play a significant role in supporting economic growth.
Globally in 2018, around 185 million tons of sugar was produced, led by India with 35.9 million tons, followed by Brazil and Thailand. There are more than 123 sugar-producing countries, but only 30% of the produce is traded on the international market.

Global players

The top 10 sugar-producing companies based on production in 2010:

Rank	Company	2010/11 Output	Country
1.	Südzucker AG	4.2	Germany
2.	Cosan SA Industria & Comercio	4.1	Brazil
3.	British Sugar Plc	3.9	UK
4.	Tereos Internacional SA	3.6	France
5.	Mitr Phol Sugar Corp.	2.7	Thailand
6.	Nordzucker Gmbh & Co KG	2.5	Germany
7.	Louis Dreyfus	1.8	Netherlands
8.	Wilmar International Ltd.	1.5	Singapore
9.	Thai Roong Ruang Sugar Group	1.5	Thailand
10.	Turkiye Seker Fabrikalari	1.34	Turkey

The global sugar industry has a low market share concentration. The top four sugar producers account for less than 20.0% of the market.

Products

The sugar industry engages in sugar marketing and lobbying, minimizing the adverse health effects of sugar—obesity and tooth decay—and influencing medical research and public health recommendations.

Organizations

International Sugar Organization
Sugar Association
European Association of Sugar Manufacturers
Sugar Nutrition UK
Indian Sugar Mills Association
Global Energy Balance Network
Sugar refinement

Table sugar comes from plant sources. Two important sugar crops predominate: sugarcane and sugar beets, in which sugar can account for 12% to 20% of the plant's dry weight. The plant material is separated to isolate the sucrose-rich portions. Purification of the sucrose exploits the good solubility of sucrose in water. After this aqueous extraction. Sucrose is obtained by successive recrystallizations, producing solid forms suited for the markets. Terminology describing some of these stages includes thick and thin juice, massecuite, magma, mother syrup, etc.
In the case of corn syrup, the high fructose corn syrup is obtained by hydrolysis of the starch from corn and wheat. This conversion, the starch is soaked in warm water in the presence of enzymes that break down the starch into a glucose. The resulting syrup is subsequently partially converted to fructose, i.e., high fructose corn syrup and related products. Again, the processing exploits the high solubility of sugars in water. The low prices of glucose syrups produced from wheat and corn compete with the traditional sugar market.

Environmental effects

Sugarcane is a very water-intensive crop and irrigating sugarcane can contribute to water scarcity.

Cane

Since the 6th century BCE, cane sugar producers have crushed the harvested vegetable material from sugarcane to collect and filter the juice. The extract is treated with lime and solids are removed. Cooling, the concentrated liquid produce sugar crystals. Centrifuges usually remove the uncrystallized syrup. The producers can then either sell the sugar product for use as is, or process it further to produce lighter grades. The later processing may take place in another factory in another country.

Beet

Beet sugar producers slice the washed beets, then extract the sugar with hot water in a "diffuser". An alkaline solution then serves to precipitate impurities. After filtration, evaporation concentrates the juice to a content of about 70% solids, and controlled crystallisation extracts the sugar. A centrifuge removes the sugar crystals from the liquid, which gets recycled in the crystalliser stages. When economic constraints prevent the removal of more sugar, the manufacturer discards the remaining liquid, now known as molasses, or sells it on to producers of animal feed.
Sieving the resultant white sugar produces different grades for selling.

Cane versus beet

It is difficult to distinguish between fully refined sugar produced from beet and cane. One way is by isotope analysis of carbon. Cane uses C4 carbon fixation, and beet uses C3 carbon fixation, resulting in a different ratio of ¹³C and ¹²C isotopes in the sucrose. Tests are used to detect fraudulent abuse of European Union subsidies or to aid in the detection of adulterated fruit juice.
Sugar cane tolerates hot climates better, but the production of sugar cane needs approximately four times as much water as the production of sugar beet. As a result, some countries that traditionally produced cane sugar have built new beet sugar factories since about 2008. Some sugar factories process both sugar cane and sugar beets and extend their processing period in that way.
The production of sugar leaves residues that differ substantially depending on the raw materials used and on the place of production. While cane molasses is often used in food preparation, humans find molasses from sugar beets unpalatable, and it consequently ends up mostly as industrial fermentation feedstock, or as animal feed. Once dried, either type of molasses can serve as fuel for burning.
Pure beet sugar is difficult to find, so labelled, in the marketplace. Although some makers label their product clearly as "pure cane sugar", beet sugar is almost always labeled simply as sugar or pure sugar. Interviews with the five major beet sugar-producing companies revealed that many store brands or "private label" sugar products are pure beet sugar. The lot code can be used to identify the company and the plant from which the sugar came, enabling beet sugar to be identified if the codes are known.

History of the sucrose industry

The production of table sugar has a long history. Some scholars claim Indians discovered how to crystallize sugar during the Gupta dynasty, around CE 350.
Other scholars point to the ancient manuscripts of China, dated to the 8th century BCE, where one of the earliest historical mentions of sugar cane is included along with the fact that their knowledge of sugar cane was derived from India. By about 500 BCE, residents of modern-day India began making sugar syrup, cooling it in large flat bowls to produce raw sugar crystals that were easier to store and transport. In the local Indian language, these crystals were called , which is the source of the word candy.
The army of Alexander the Great was halted on the banks of river Indus by the refusal of his troops to go further east. They saw people in the Indian subcontinent growing sugarcane and making "granulated, salt-like sweet powder", locally called ,, pronounced as in Greek. On their return journey, the Greek soldiers carried back some of the "honey-bearing reeds". Sugarcane remained a limited crop for over a millennium. Sugar was a rare commodity and traders of sugar became wealthy. Venice, at the height of its financial power, was the chief sugar-distributing center of Europe. Moors started producing it in Sicily and Spain. Only after the Crusades did it begin to rival honey as a sweetener in Europe. The Spanish began cultivating sugarcane in the West Indies in 1506. The Portuguese first cultivated sugarcane in Brazil in 1532.
Sugar remained a luxury in much of the world until the 18th century. Only the wealthy could afford it. In the 18th century, the demand for table sugar boomed in Europe and by the 19th century it had become regarded as a human necessity. The use of sugar grew from use in tea, to cakes, confectionery and chocolates. Suppliers marketed sugar in novel forms, such as solid cones, which required consumers to use a sugar nip, a pliers-like tool, in order to break off pieces.
The demand for cheaper table sugar drove, in part, colonization of tropical islands and nations where labor-intensive sugarcane plantations and table sugar manufacturing could thrive. Growing sugar cane crop in hot humid climates, and producing table sugar in high temperature sugar mills was harsh, inhumane work. The demand for cheap labor for this work, in part, first drove slave trade from Africa, followed by indentured labor trade from South Asia. Millions of slaves, followed by millions of indentured laborers were brought into the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, East Africa, Natal, north and eastern parts of South America, and southeast Asia. The modern ethnic mix of many nations, settled in the last two centuries, has been influenced by table sugar.
Beginning in the late 18th century, the production of sugar became increasingly mechanized. The steam engine first powered a sugar mill in Jamaica in 1768, and, soon after, steam replaced direct firing as the source of process heat. During the same century, Europeans began experimenting with sugar production from other crops. Andreas Marggraf identified sucrose in beet root and his student Franz Achard built a sugar beet processing factory in Silesia. The beet-sugar industry took off during the Napoleonic Wars, when France and the continent were cut off from Caribbean sugar. In 2009, about 20 percent of the world's sugar was produced from beets.