The Louisiana Sugar Industry

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                FROM LOUISIANA SUGAR CANE FIELDS                                          TO YOUR SUGAR BOWL

Sugar is pure, contains no man-made chemicals or warning labels, is 100% natural, and contains less than 16 calories per teaspoon. Unlike artificial sweeteners sugar has been declared safe by the Food & Drug Administration (GRAS list). Sugar, or sucrose, is produced most commonly from sugarcane or sugar beets when the energy of sunlight along with chlorophyll in the leaves transforms water and nutrients into sugar. Sugarcane and/or sugar beets are produced in 16 states and provide over 9.0 million short tons of sugar to the USA.

Sugarcane is being produced on over 480,000 acres of land in 24 Louisiana Parishes. Production of should exceed fourteen million tons of cane has an economic impact of $2.3 billion to the cane growers and raw sugar factories of the state. Louisiana produces about 20% of the sugar grown in the United States (beets and cane). Approximately 16,000 employees are involved in this production and processing of sugar in Louisiana alone.

Of the U.S. sugar producing areas, Louisiana is the oldest and most historic. Sugarcane arrived in Louisiana with the Jesuit priests in 1751 who planted it near where their church now stands on Baronne Street in New Orleans. Several plantations were planted in what is now the city limits of New Orleans and in 1795, Etienne deBore, first granulated sugar on a commercial scale in Audubon Park. Except for disastrous production years during the Civil War, during a disease epidemic of the 1920's, and from 10 degree freezing temperatures affecting the 1990 crop, the Louisiana sugarcane industry has continued to increase in productivity, mainly due to improved varieties, cultural practices, pest control and sugar processing techniques. The Louisiana sugarcane industry is currently in its third century of sugar production.

Sugarcane is planted vegetatively, using whole stalks of cane rather than true seed. Each stalk consists of several joints which each have a bud. Cane stalks are planted in rows during the fall of each year and the buds produce shoots of cane the following spring. After maturing into stalks during the late summer, the cane crop is first harvested that fall and is called the plant cane crop. Sugarcane is a grass and more than one cutting can be harvested from each planting. In Louisiana, two to four additional annual cuttings (called ratoon crops) are made before the land has to be fallowed and replanted.

All Louisiana sugarcane is mechanically harvested using either soldier or combine type harvesters. Soldier harvesters cut off the cane tops, cut the stalks from their attachment to the row, and lay them on heaps behind the machine. After the cane heaps are burned to remove excess trash, cane loaders place the cane in large wagons for transport to the raw sugar factories. Combine harvesters cut the stalks into short pieces or billets, while extractor fans remove a portion of the leaf trash. Billets are then transported to the factories.

At the raw sugar factories, cane is washed and crushed, with the juice being boiled down to a thick syrup. The cane by-product is bagasse which is used as a fuel to power the factories. The thick syrup is separated into sugar crystals ("raw sugar") and molasses (used in livestock feed). The raw sugar is sold to refiners who melt the raw sugar crystals, remove the remaining impurities and color, and produce white or "refined" sugar.

Prepared and distributed by the American Sugar Cane League of the USA, Inc.

The mission of the American Sugar Cane League is to sustain success through effective research, positive legislation, public relations/promotion, and education.

                              LOUISIANA SUGARCANE STATISTICS

INDUSTRY FACTS

  • Number of farms                                                                                                            448
  • Average farm size (acres planted)                                                                              1,360
  • Number of Parishes farming sugarcane                                                                          24
  • Total acres in sugarcane cultivation (including fallow)                                            610,000
  • Total acres planted in sugarcane                                                                             482,111
  • % of acreage which is lease land                                                                                  >80

PRODUCTION

  • Acreage harvested for sugar                                                                                  440,000                                                                            
  • Acreage grown for seed cane                                                                                  42,000
  • Total gross tons ground                                                                                     13,588,003
  • Total short tons sugar producted (raw value)                                                      1,543,356
  • Total gallons 80o brix molasses.                                                                       75,877,359

CROP VALUE

  • Value of crop in La.1                                                                                                          833,708,211
  • Total value to growers and landowner (60%)                                                500,224,927
  • Total value from factories (40%)                                                                      333,483,284
  • State ranking (plant, animal and fisheries commodities)2                                               second
  • State randig (Plant commodities only)2                                                                         first     
  • Direct economic value generated (x2.75)                                                     2,293,000,000

EMPLOYMENT3

  • Estimated number of farm workers                                                                            5,250                             
  • Estimated number of raw sugar factory workers                                                        7,200
  • Estimated number of refinery workers                                                                        3,950
  • Total estimated number of industry workers                                                             16,400

          (direct and indirect jobs)

1 LSU Ag Center Ag Summary

2 Excludes Forestry: Louisiana Summary 2019 Agriculture and Natural Resources, LSU Ag Center, www.2lsuagcenter.com/agsummary

3 "Economic Importance of the Sugar Industry to the U.S. Economy - Jobs and Revenues" LMC International Ltd; Aug. 2011

                             Louisiana Sugarcane Production

Planting- Prior to planting, the fallow ground is disked and precision graded to insure good drainage. The fallow operation occurs from spring through summer and prepares the seedbed for good germination. Furrows are opened on six foot wide rows and cane stalks are planted and covered. Each stalk consists of numerous joints, each with a bud which germinates and produces cane shoots. The planting season is from August through September. During the winter, the cane shoots are frozen back to the ground. In the spring the cane resprouts and

begins to grow and tiller. Sugarcane is a grass and does not need to be replanted after every cutting. In Louisiana, three or four annual crops are harvested from each planting.

Cultivation and fertilization The practice of working or stirring the top soil with disks or hoes pulled by tractors occurs each spring. This helps to control weeds, prepares the soil for fertilization and loosens the soil for cane roots to reach air and moisture. Essential plant nutrients are added to the soil to provide the cane plant with its requirements for maximum cane growth and sugar content.

Summer growth – Cane grows most rapidly during the summer months. During this period, the farmer cannot cultivate the crop but does control insects (sugarcane borer). With adequate moisture and typical summer temperatures, sugarcane can grow more than one inch per day during June, July and August.

Harvesting and transport The Louisiana harvest season normally occurs from late September through early January. All cane is harvested mechanically either by a combine harvester or a soldier harvester. The combine harvester (seen in the photo) cuts the standing cane stalks into pieces (billets), shreds the leaves from the top of the stalk, and loads them directly into transport wagons. The soldier harvester, which cuts the stalks even with the ground, cuts off the tops and piles the stalks across the rows. Normally cane has about 15% trash (leaves) which is removed by burning. This allows for more efficient transportation and cleaner cane delivered to the raw sugar factory. Cane that is cut with a soldier harvester burned the next day. Mechanical field loaders pick up the cane from the heaps and place the cane into transport wagons. These wagons deliver the cane directly to the factory or to a transloader station where the cane is transferred to highway trailers. After deliver to the sugar factory, the cane is weighed, sampled, and washed before being milled. In the factory, cane is crushed and the extracted juice boiled to produce raw sugar and molasses.

                          Louisiana Raw Sugar Factory Operation

Milling – Delivered cane is weighed for cane yield, sampled for cane quality and washed in the mill yard. Shredders then prepare the cane by producing a uniform mat of chopped cane on the carrier. A series of three-roller mills crush the cane and extract the raw juice. Water is sprayed on the cane to help wash the juice from the cane. The woody residue left after extraction of the juice is called bagasse and is used as a fuel in most factories but can also be used for paper, building boards, plastics, mulch and animal bedding or litter.

Clarification – The raw juice is strained and heated. Lime is added to cause impurities such as mud to settle. Clarifiers separate the juice into clarified juice and muddy juice. The muddy juice is sent to filters where any juice is removed leaving mud (filter cake) which is returned to the fields.

Evaporation – The clarified juice is then boiled in evaporators which remove most of the water leaving a thick syrup.

Crystallization and Centrifuging - The syrup is boiled under partial vacuum which causes the development and growth of sugar crystals. Massecuite (raw sugar crystals mixed with molasses) moves to centrifugals which separate the two. After all the commercially recoverable sugar is removed, the resulting molasses is sold as blackstrap molasses and is generally used as cattle food or can be used in production of alcohol, yeast, citric acid or vinegar. The raw sugar is then stored in warehouses until sold to refineries for further processing.