The term sugar refers to a set of plant species of the family Poaceae Saccharum and gender.

They are grown for their stems, which is extracted from sugar. With an annual production volume exceeding 1.3 billion tonnes1 These were the first cultivated plants worldwide with nearly 23% of the total mass produced in agriculture in the world.

They were until the early nineteenth century the only major source of sugar and are currently still 65 to 70% of the production of sucre2.

Sugar cane is a large tropical grass yields port of reed, with a height ranging from 2.5 to 6 meters. Stems with a diameter of 1.5 to 6 cm, are pleines3. Leaves, alternate, are divided in two lines opposite limb and have a 1 m long for about 2 to 10 cm wide. They are ten on plants growing in the lower part of the stem stripping as the leaves dry low.

The inflorescence is a terminal panicle of fifty centimeters to one meter long. In culture, the cane is cut before flowering. It is a perennial rhizomatous its strain.

Origin and distribution

The plant no longer exists in the wild. His country of origin would be the islands of New Guinea, where it was spread by the first man in all the islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean to Malaysia, or in the Indochinese peninsula. Its circulation may be related to the expansion of Austronesian across Southeast Asia and the Pacific island.

Of different species in these regions, Saccharum officinarum is the one that has been domesticated. It was then crossed with wild species (Saccharum robustum, Saccharum barberi, Saccharum spontaneum and Saccharum sinense) to improve sugar yield and resistance to various climats4.

Today it is cultivated in all tropical and warm temperate.

Sugar cane in flower

Culture

The area of cultivation of sugarcane ranges from 35 ° north latitude 30 ° south latitude.

The multiplication is done by cuttings. These cuttings are pieces of canes 30 inches long about on several nodes with well formed buds.

Harvesting occurs after eleven months after planting, before flowering.

The canes are cut at ground level, the sugar concentration is maximum in the lower part of the stem. The upper part is eliminated in the field (can be pruning cuttings), and leaves. The new strains emitting rods, a second crop is possible in a year or even a third, but the sugar content tends to decrease.

Treatment

Sugar cane cut and ready to be transformed

Cane harvested in the form of sections of stems, is transported to a processing unit, usually a sugar refinery to be processed. The stems are crushed in a mill and produce a sweet liquid, cane juice or Cane, and a fibrous residue, bagasse.

Bagasse is primarily used for steam production (burning in a boiler), to feed energy to the processing unit, which operates mostly in energy self-sufficiency. The excess bagasse not used for this first use can be used to make paper, particle board, bedding for animals, serve as food for livestock, be valued as a basis for compost, etc.. Finally, the bagasse is also often burned in power plants bagasse for heat and electricity, as in Réunion5 and Maurice6.

In sugar, cane juice or vesou subject to evaporation, leading to the syrup, which is clarified and then concentrated to extract the raw sugar, brown sugar. This will lead to the brown sugar, which eventually will be transformed into white sugar in a refinery.

The extracted cane juice after crushing the stems, or Cane, can also be fermented and distilled, to get the agricultural rum. This applies particularly in the overseas departments french (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana and a little Réunion).

In many countries in South America or Asia, the juice of certain varieties of sugarcane is also increased at high temperature to produce a very common food, designated by many different names, one of the most common is panela.

The liquid residue from the manufacture of sugar, very sweet, black and viscous, is molasses. The latter can be fermented and distilled, leading to the production of water of life: industrial rum (formerly called the West tafia), also known today rum or molasses rum traditional sugar (RTS) in the overseas departments (DOM). Molasses can be fermented and distilled to produce pure alcohol or ethanol, for pharmaceutical purposes or, increasingly, biofuels, fuel for vehicles (so more and more significant, particularly in Brazil). Molasses can also be used as such for human consumption or animal feed (in the latter case, often mixed with bagasse).

In 1996, the agricultural rum from Martinique has attained the status of “Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC), obtained by operators in the industry after more than twenty years of efforts. First AOC overseas and in addition to an alcohol blank, this class will rum from Martinique agricultural noble spirits related to geographical origin. This name reflects the uniqueness of the Martinique Rhum agricole “, an expression of intimate connection between production, the land and know-how of men, perpetuated over the générations7.

Manufacture of sugar cane

Fiber cane

Grinding

Manufacture of sugar

The sugar contained in the stalks of cane is sucrose. This sucrose is one of the products of photosynthesis (converting light energy into chemical energy). Cane sugar that accumulates in the stems as energy reserve. The amount of sucrose in the cane is on average 12 to 15%. To extract and concentrate the sugar cane must be subjected to treatment which has become more complex over the years. Today, the highly mechanized process and delivers a product of high purity. Here are the main operations to extract sugar cane:
Preparation: First, the rods are mechanically shredded to facilitate grinding.
Extraction: The juice is extracted by crushing or by diffusion. In the case of grinding mills are used so-called “conventional” or MillMax. In the case of dissemination, it operates by leaching.
Clarification: the vesou which contains many impurities are removed by sieving, by heating and addition of lime (lime).
Evaporation: the clear juice is heated to different temperatures in the evaporator at reduced pressure. The water is eliminated in the form of steam and we get the syrup.
Crystallization: in boilers, the syrup is heated to 55 ° C and at reduced pressure. It turns into a pasty mass, the mass containing cooked sugar crystals and a viscous liquid called mother liquor.
Kneading-turbinage the mass is mixed and cooked turbines in a centrifuge to separate the sugar crystals and syrup sewer. We get the sugar first jet.
First resumed Sewer: Sewer syrups are kneaded and turbinas again to get the sugar second jet.
Second resumed Sewer: Sewer syrups are kneaded and turbinas a second time. We get the third jet of sugar and molasses. Sugar third jet can be redesigned to be mixed in the first jet.
Drying: the sugar crystals are dried.
Packing: the sugar crystals are finally put in bags. In producer countries, brown sugar obtained is often sold and eaten as is. To get the white sugar, brown sugar must undergo a series of refining factory.

The traditional method, known as the Father Labat

Introduced in 1654 by the exiled Dutch from Brazil, the traditional method of manufacture of sugar in the Caribbean homes will hardly changed for nearly two centuries. This method has been described in great detail by a Dominican monk, Father Jean-Baptiste Labat, to the point that now bears his nom8.

In the traditional method, the chain of transactions through a series of six boilers one meter in diameter, each with a name and a specific cane juice was first collected in the Great, and then passed through own when it was clarified in the torch when it was first reduced, then the syrup and finally finished syrup obtained his cooking in the Battery. Once finished cooking, pouring sugar solution into large wooden bins, the “rafraîchissoirs”, where it cools and crystallizes. Cooled sugar – cooked or mass – is deposited in containers drilled with holes to let the syrup flow. After four weeks, the sugar is purged of its syrup and ready to be exported. The syrup is collected and distilled to produce rum.

Economic aspects

More than a hundred countries of 130 000 km2 grow. The first twenty were harvested 1 218 million tonnes in 2003, or 91% of the total. The biggest producers are Brazil, India and China.

Harvesting of cane sugar producing countries CubaPrincipaux
2 003
(Source FAO) area cultivated
(kha) Yield
(q / Ha) Production
(Mt)
World 20 419 7 652 9 1 333 3
Brazil 5 342 9 722 9 386 2
India 4 607 6 628 6 289 6
People’s Republic of China 1 328 0 695.6 92.4
Thailand 970.0 664.0 64.4
Pakistan 1 086 0 479.3 52.1
Mexico 639.1 706.1 45.1
Colombia 435.0 841.4 36.6
Australia 423.0 851.3 36.0
United States 403.8 775.2 31.3
Production in tonnes. Figures 2003-20049,10
Brazil 389 848 992 29% 411% 009 984 31
India 281 600 000 21% 244% 800 000 19
China 92 039 300 7% 93% 200 000 7
Thailand 78 170 000 6% 63% 707 272 5
Pakistan 52 055 800 4% 4% 52,040,000
Mexico 45 126 500 3% 3% 45,126,500
Colombia 37 000 000 3% 3% 37,100,000
Australia 37 968 000 3% 3% 36,892,000
Philippines 25 865 000 2% 2% 28,000,000
United States 30 714 550 2% 27% 501 310 2
Indonesia 24 500 000 2% 24% 600 000 2
Cuba 22 901 600 2% 24% 000 000 2
Argentina 19 250 000 1% 19% 500 000 1
South Africa 20 418 932 2% 19% 291 800 1
Guatemala 17 500 000 1% 18% 000 000 1
Vietnam 16 524 900 1% 16% 600 000 1
Egypt 16 334 763 1% 16% 335 000 1
Other countries 143 776 462 11% 140% 167 208 11
Total 1 351 594 799 100% 1 317 871 074 100%

Competition from beet sugar is very high. Without support of power subsidies, the harvest will decline sharply in the coming years.

The largest producer of cane sugar in Europe is the French Quarter, which is headquartered in Sainte-Suzanne, Reunion.

History

Sugar cane has been known since prehistory (Neolithic), and is originally from New Guinea or Indochina. Its culture has been gradually extended to neighboring islands, and then won India and China. The extraction of sugar cane is evidenced in China about six centuries before Christ. This is the expedition of Alexander the Great to the Indus at around -325, which gave the first Europeans, we find the trace in the writings of Néarque.

It was imported to Persia in the sixth century. From the seventh century, Arabs introduced from Persia in all occupied territories, including Cyprus, Crete, and to Spain during the eighth century. The exploitation of these plantations is done by slaves, mode of production will persist until the abolition of slavery. The West will rediscover the sugar with the Crusades: the first appearance of the word in french date from the twelfth century, in Chrétien de Troyes, and it is borrowed from Arabic.

This product is initially in Europe sold by apothecaries (hence its Latin name Saccharum officinarum). In the thirteenth century, the intensification of trade, the taste of luxury and the rise of the new middle class in cities spreading its use.

These are the Italian merchant cities, Venice and Genoa in the first, engaged in this successful trade with the Orient. The sugar is purchased at the counters of the Levant traders but also locate Italian colonies plantation on the banks of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean islands.

The taking of Constantinople by the Turks gives a halt to trade with the Black Sea and the Italian cities are turning toward other centers of production and supply cane already cultivated in the Mediterranean possessions, Balearic Islands, Southern Spain and Portugal is introduced in the islands recently discovered Atlantic (Canary Islands) and in the conquest of the West Indies.

Sugar cane was introduced in the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in 1493, where thanks to climate culture quickly prospered. This culture that requires an abundant workforce has fueled the slave trade from Africa and then, after the abolition of slavery imposed, the use of the commitment.

The spread of sugar cane, which is done very easily by cuttings, quickly reaches throughout Central America, including Santo Domingo, Cuba, Mexico and Louisiana. All clones were initially introduced in the Mediterranean basin, but during the nineteenth century, new introductions have been made from Tahiti and Java. The famous expedition of the Bounty commanded by Captain Bligh in 1787-1789 aimed to bring back from Tahiti to Jamaica cuttings of sugar cane and breadfruit tree.

In the seventeenth century, cane cultivation is widespread in the French colonies. Montesquieu in The Spirit of Laws, with sarcasm justifies the use of slaves by “Sugar would be too expensive, unless the plant was cultivated by slaves. ”

The French Revolution disrupted the maritime transport of sugar from the cane with the colonies. Then in the early nineteenth century, the continental blockade established by the Napoleonic Empire against England provoked a surge in prices. Sugar beet was then developed and competition from sugar cane.

The cultivation of sugar cane called a lot of labor, agricultural workers. Some of the trades formerly identified in a dwelling Caribbean sugar:
The sarcleurs, cutters and moorings
As the names suggest, they are weeding the fields of cane, cut the cane at harvest and by securing the pile to facilitate transport to the factory.
The ti-band ‘(small strips)
They were made by children who put manure, remove the leaves of canes, walking before the horse to guide them, and so on.
The Commander
It distributes tasks, directs, supervises and checks the work in the fields (it was often a mulatto).
The géreur (often a béke)
It was he who was the management of agricultural properties and making the decisions.
The béke
White Creole descendant families from the provinces of France to settle in the West Indies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The economy
He holds the finance, control and manage the budget. It’s right hand géreur.

To drive the cabrouets or plows to oxen, there were:
The guide
A child (most often) who walked before the horse to run.
The driver
It held and supported on the arms of the plow when plowing the fields.
The aiguillonneur
He walked beside the horse armed with a whip or a Gaul with a steel spur and whipped or stole the animals to move them forward. Depending on the size of the coupling, there could be two aiguillonneurs.

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