If sugar costs $1.70/kg, but takes 100kgs of sugarcane and over 2000L of water to produce that 1 kg, how is the end product profitable?

Question

If sugar costs $1.70/kg, but takes 100kgs of sugarcane and over 2000L of water to produce that 1 kg, how is the end product profitable?

In: 300

Answer 1

Sugarcane is a grass and self-perpetuates in the right climate where it’s naturally getting enough water. All you have to do is pay incredibly underpaid laborers to go cut it down. It’s also easy to cultivate using cuttings. Furthermore there’s byproducts by the way of cellulosic ethanol, thatch and as livestock fodder. A single mature planting can be cut and regrown every year indefinitely, although sugarcane produces the most and best sugar content during its first five to seven mature years