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
Some crop production is not profitable, but if it is deemed necessary, the government subsidizes it so the farmer doesn’t lose money for growing it.
Surprised nobody posted here about subsidies. Most farms in America are eligible for subsidies for various parts of their operations.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but isn’t the sugarcane and that water used to extract the sugar used to make rum and other alcoholic beverages?
Sugar is one of the most heavily regulated commodities in the United States.
The US has strict controls on how much sugar is imported each year as well as price controls including price floors for domestically grown sugar. Sugar quotas are set by region and state at the Cane/Beet source.
For example, as part of the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981, the USDA gives loans to Sugar Producers, at a fixed price guaranteed for the crops. If the price per pound drops below the this USDA target price, then the farmer can relinquish the crop to the USDA at that price – effectively introducing a floor for Sugar prices. As of 2018 the average national rate of 18.75 cents for every pound of raw sugarcane provided as collateral (rates vary slightly by region of the country) and 24.09 cents per pound of refined beet sugar.
This all results in much higher sugar prices in the US, which is a primary reason that the US relies heavily on corn syrup instead of Sugar in many commercial uses.
I have no idea how the 100->1kg myth came around (but it’s wide spread)
Because either the plants (that have been selectively bred for maximum sugar content for hundreds of years) would contain very little sugar or that the sugar extraction process would be very inefficient (after hundreds of years of figuring out exactly how to get the maximum amount of sugar out of a plant).
The truth is the opposite. Sugarproducing plants contain a very high amount of sugar (10-15% for sugar cane, 12-20% for sugar beets) and the extraction method is rather efficient, yielding on average 10-12% sugar per unit of plant matter and (at least for sugar beets) another 5% high quality animal feed. The rest of the weight is mainly water.
I just had a quick research ad eve i high volumes BROW sugar (The one that is made from sugarcane) is more like 2.1$/kg, 3$+ in smaller volumes (2lb).
White sugar from sugar beets is way less expensive.
I work for a major sugar producers in the states, a ton of beets has about 280 lbs of recovable sugar and about 1400 lbs of water that will be extracted. sugar manufacturing is a net water generator.
during normal production my factory targets 2 million lbs of sugar per day. 280 days per year. sugar is just one of the products sold by my factory.
we also have several other products we sell that we “accidentally ” produce.
finally, government, if your in the states your sugar is produced a legal monopolie. if your not in the states your sugar is subsidized by the government
it also depends on how much you are buying train cars full every week for a year or sacks randomly by truck
How are you costing this? The EU taxed sugar from the third world by 400% in the seventies to promote a high enough price to subsidise Sugar Beet.
Depending on the variety, one ton of sugarcane can yield between 170 and 225 pounds of refined sugar, according to Purdue University’s Center for New Crops and Plant Products.
2000 Lbs Sugar Cane = 200 Lbs Sugar
10% sugar in unrefined Sugar Cane
[https://www.iflscience.com/how-much-raw-material-it-takes-to-make-11-everyday-foods-and-products-from-sugar-cubes-to-iphones-49231#:~:text=Depending%20on%20the%20variety%2C%20one,to%20make%20one%20sugar%20cube](https://www.iflscience.com/how-much-raw-material-it-takes-to-make-11-everyday-foods-and-products-from-sugar-cubes-to-iphones-49231#:~:text=Depending%20on%20the%20variety%2C%20one,to%20make%20one%20sugar%20cube).
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