Overview

About sugar

Sugar is a bulk commodity produced from sugarcane or sugar beets. In Mexico, it is made from sugarcane. Sugarcane grows best in tropical areas whereas sugar beet is produced in temperate zones.

Once harvested, the cane or beets are crushed to extract juice. This juice can be used to produce sugar or ethanol. In the case of sugarcane, the remaining vegetable matter (bagasse) can be burned to produce energy to run the producing plant and supply energy to the local grid.

To produce sugar, the extracted juice is purified and the mixture is then dehydrated and thickened into syrup, which is crystallized. The crystals are separated from the remaining liquid to produce molasses and raw sugar, which is then sent to refineries for further processing.

It is not possible to store sugarcane as it loses sugar content. As a result, raw sugar is typically processed near where it is grown, and exported from there.

Our strengths in sugar

Our Sugar platform is a global merchandizing, marketing and logistics business responsible for delivering raw and white sugar and ethanol to key destination markets worldwide. We have a reputation for being one of the most reliable sources of market intelligence thanks to our strong fundamental research on trade flows and our futures market analysis. Our insights have helped us deepen our customer relationships in key consumption markets and increase our volumes significantly.