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U.S. Sugar Production
U.S. and World Sugar Prices
U.S. High-Fructose Corn Syrup Production
and Prices
U.S. Sweetener Deliveries
U.S. Sugar Production
The United States is among the world's largest sugar producers.
Unlike most other producing countries, the United States
has both large and well-developed sugarcane and sugar
beet industries. Since the mid-1990s, sugarcane has accounted
for about 46 percent of the total sugar produced domestically,
and sugar beets for about 54 percent of production. U.S.
sugar production expanded from an early 1980s' average
of 6.0 million short tons, raw value (STRV) to an average
8.3 million STRV in the 2000s. The production increases
are due to a substantial investment in new processing
equipment, the adoption of new technologies, the use of
improved crop varieties, and acreage expansion (because
of higher prices for sugar relative to alternative crops).
Sugarcane and sugar beet yields can vary widely
from year to year due to weather, but both have tended
to grow over time. The growth of sugarcane yields has
been particularly impressive in Florida and Louisiana
due to varietal improvements, investments in improved
harvesting technologies, and other technological changes.
Sugar beet yields have ranged from a low of 18.6 short
tons per acre in fiscal year (FY) 1993 to a high of 26.1
tons per acre in FY 2007.
The number of farms growing sugarcane and sugar
beets declined from 1997 to 2002, but the average area
harvested per farm increased. According to the
2002 Census of Agriculture, the number of farms growing
sugar beets and sugarcane decreased from 8,136 in 1997
to 5,980 in 2002. The number of farms growing sugar beets
declined from 7,057 to 5,027, while average area harvested
per farm rose from 205 to 272 acres. The number of sugarcane
farms dropped from 1,079 to 953, while average area harvested
grew from 825 to 1,027 acres per farm.
Sugarcane production. Sugarcane is one of the essential raw material sources of manufactured sugar in the United
States. Sugarcane, a tall perennial grass, is grown in
tropical and semitropical climates. After the planting
of cane stalk cuttings, the plant matures in 1-2 years.
Two to four crops are harvested from the original plantings,
unless the plants are impaired or destroyed by frost,
disease, or other causes. Once harvested, sugarcane must
be processed quickly before its sucrose deteriorates.
In the United States, sugarcane is produced in Florida,
Louisiana, Hawaii, and Texas. Acreage of sugarcane for
sugar rose from an average 285,000 acres in the first
half of the 1980s to 370,000 acres in the 2000s. Over
the same period, sugar produced from sugarcane grew from
24.2 million STRV to 27.9 million tons.
Florida's sugarcane production has expanded significantly
since the United States ceased importing sugar from Cuba
in 1960. Florida is the largest cane-producing region
in the United States. Most of the sugarcane is produced
in organic soils along the southern and southeastern shore
of Lake Okeechobee in Southern Florida, where the growing
season is long and winters are generally warm. Florida
has produced an average 1.87 million STRV of sugar in the
2000s.
In Louisiana, the northernmost cane-growing State, sugarcane
production has been largely confined to the Delta, where
soils are fertile and the climate is warm. However, the
sugar industry in Louisiana has expanded northward
and westward into nontraditional sugarcane growing areas.
Most of the expansion in sugarcane acreage in recent years
has occurred as returns for competing crops, such as rice
and soybeans, have decreased. Louisiana production has
also expanded due to the adoption of high-yielding sugarcane
varieties, along with investments in new harvesting combines.
Louisiana has produced an average 1.4 million STRV of
sugar in the 2000s.
Texas sugarcane is produced in the lower Rio Grande Valley
in the southern tip of the State. The area has a subtropical
climate—long, hot summers and short, mild winters.
Killing freezes are a recurrent threat, and hurricane
and drought have significantly reduced production in some
years. Production of sugarcane in Texas resumed with the
1973 crop after years of inactivity. During the 1980s,
total harvested area averaged about 35,000 acres and varied
little. Sugarcane production averaged about 100,000 tons
per year for the same period, but varied from year to
year due to changes in yields. FY 2001 saw a 50-percent
expansion in sugarcane acreage from the previous year.
Area harvested has averaged about 41,000 acres in the
2000s and sugar produced has averaged 173,000 STRV.
Hawaii's sugarcane production until recently was spread
across the islands of Hawaii, Kauai, Maui, and Oahu, but
closures of processing plants and competing uses for sugar
land have reduced sugar production to two mills on Maui
and Kauai. Sugarcane area harvested in Hawaii has decreased
from close to 100,000 acres in FY 1981 to an average 21,900
acres in the 2000s. The State’s sugar production has declined
from over 1.0 million tons in the first half of the 1980s
to 253,000 tons in the 2000s.
Sugar
beet production. Sugar beets are the other leading
raw material for manufactured sugar in the United States.
Sugar beets, a sturdy crop grown in a wide variety of
temperate climatic conditions, are planted annually. In
the United States, sugar beets are grown in the hot climate
of the Imperial Valley of California, as well as in the
colder climates of Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota.
Sugar beets can be stored for a short while after harvest,
but must soon be processed before sucrose deterioration
occurs.
Sugar beets basically are grown in five regions encompassing
11 States, and tend to be grown in rotation with other
crops. Two of the regions are east of the Mississippi
River, while the three other areas are in the Great Plains
and Far West. The western regions represent dryland farming
that is dependent on irrigation as a primary source of
water. The eastern regions depend on rainfall. Sugar beet
yields in the western areas tend to be higher than in
the east, but production costs tend to be higher as well.
In all areas, sugar production is enhanced by technologies
that allow the desugaring of molasses that otherwise would
be a relatively low-value byproduct.
The largest and most dynamic region for sugar beet production
is in or close to the Red River Valley of western Minnesota
and eastern North Dakota. Area planted in the Red River
region has been growing consistently through the 1990s
and has averaged 750,000 acres in the 2000s, or about
54 percent of total planted U.S. sugar beet acreage. Long,
cold winters aid the storage of sugar beets harvested
in October and allow the slicing of sugar beets well into
the following spring, thereby making more efficient use
of slicing capacity at the factories. A second area of
sugar beet production is in Michigan. Area planted in this region in the
2000s has averaged 170,000 acres, or about 12 percent
of total U.S. acreage.
Sugar beet production occurs in the Upper Great Plains
(north central Wyoming, Montana, and western North Dakota)
and Central Grain Plains (southeastern Wyoming, Colorado,
and Nebraska). Area planted in the Great Plains has averaged
192,000 acres, or about 14 percent of national area planted.
Sugar beet production in the Northwest occurs in Idaho,
Washington State, and portions of Oregon. Area planted
for the 2000s has averaged about 213,000 acres, or about
15 percent of total area. California comprises the Far
Western region with an average area planted of 52,000
acres in the 2000s. Area planted in the Far Western region
has contracted from about 100,000 acres in the 2000 crop
year to about half that total in following years due to
the closure of two processing plants in northern California.
Annual cash receipts. Cash receipts for
U.S. sugar growers vary with sugar yields and prices.
Cash receipts for sugar beets were $1.19 billion in the
2005/06 crop year and $1.53 billion in the 2006/07 crop
year. Sugarcane cash receipts were $755 million in the 2005/06
crop year and $897 million in the 2006/07 crop year. On average,
the sugar crops account for 1 percent of the cash receipts
received by U.S. farmers for all agricultural commodities.
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U.S.
and World Sugar Prices
The two key sugar prices in
the United States are the raw cane sugar price and the
refined beet sugar price. The raw cane sugar price is
based on the price of sugar delivered to New York and
is quoted at the New York Board of Trade as the Sugar
Number 14 (domestic) Contract. There is no futures market
for U.S. refined sugar, but a price range for wholesale
Midwest refined beet sugar, f.o.b. (free on board) factory,
is quoted each week in Milling and Baking News.
During the 2000s, the raw sugar price has ranged between
a low average of 19.09 cents a pound in 2000 and a high
average of 22.14 cents a pound in 2006. The wholesale
beet price has likewise ranged from an average of 20.80
cents a pound in 2000 to an average of 33.10 cents a pound
in 2006.
U.S. sugar prices have been well above world prices
since 1982 because the U.S. Government supports domestic
sugar prices through loans to sugar processors and, beginning
in FY 2003, a marketing allotment program. (For further
discussion, see the Policy
chapter). The raw cane sugar price, which is based on
a bulk spot price for sugar stowed in Caribbean ports,
including Brazil, is quoted at the New York Board of Trade
as the Sugar Number 11 (world) Contract. The raw cane
sugar price has averaged about 10.01 cents a pound during
the 2000s.
A world refined sugar price, the Number 5 Contract on
the London International Financial Futures and Options
Exchange, is based on the London daily spot market price
for refined sugar f.o.b. ship in European ports. The refined
beet sugar price has averaged about 12.30 cents a pound
during the 2000s.
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High-Fructose Corn Syrup Production
and Prices
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is one of several products—along
with glucose, dextrose, corn starch, ethanol, and other
products—derived from the wet milling of corn. U.S.
corn refiners produce high fructose corn syrup by first
converting corn starch to a syrup that is nearly all dextrose.
Enzymes isomerize the dextrose to produce a 42-percent
fructose syrup called HFCS-42. By passing HFCS-42 through
an ion-exchange column that retains fructose, corn refiners
draw off 90-percent HFCS and blend it with HFCS-42 to
make a third syrup, HFCS-55.
Demand for HFCS is driven by demand for products that
use the syrups as inputs. For HFCS-55, the major use is
in the beverage industry, which demands over 90 percent
of total domestic deliveries. Major food users of HFCS-42
include the beverage industry (41 percent), processed
food manufacturers (22 percent), cereal and bakery producers
(14 percent), multiple-use food manufacturers (12 percent),
the dairy industry (9 percent), and the confectionery
industry (1 percent). Growth in these sectors has typically
accounted for growing sales of HFCS-55 and HFCS-42. Supersweet
HFCS-90 is used in natural and "light" foods where very
little is needed to provide sweetness.
Domestic production of HFCS increased from
2.2 million short tons in 1980 to an average of 9.2 million
tons, dry weight, during the 2000s as HFCS replaced more
expensively priced sugar in a variety of uses. In 1997,
corn used to produce HFCS broke through the 500-million
bushel level. It is estimated that, in the 2000s, about
526 million bushels of corn, or about 5 percent of the
total U.S. corn crop, has been be used to produce HFCS.
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U.S. Sweetener Deliveries
Deliveries of sugar and other sweeteners have averaged
about 21 million tons during the 2000s. Other sweetener
deliveries include corn sweeteners (high fructose corn
syrup, glucose syrup, and dextrose), honey, maple syrup,
and other edible syrups but exclude the deliveries of
noncaloric sweeteners.
Per capita deliveries of caloric sweeteners increased
by 32 pounds, or 27 percent, from 1970 to 151.4 pounds
in 1999. Since 1999, per capita sweetener deliveries have
decreased by 12.1 pounds to 139.3 pounds in 2006. Sugar
and sweeteners have maintained a 36- to 40-percent share
of the steadily growing U.S. per capita consumption of
carbohydrates.
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