Production

Sugarcane is grown primarily in the tropics and subtropics. In the United States, sugarcane is grown commercially in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Hawaii. The 2008 sugarcane crop totaled nearly 30.7 million tons. Florida, the top producing state, produced 15.6 million tons of the crop. The state typically contributes about half of the total U.S. cane sugar crop.  (NASS)

That same year, Louisiana produced 11.8 million tons of sugarcane, and both Texas and Hawaii produced 1.7 million tons. Sugarcane producers reported lower profits because of the low price of sugar and the high prices paid for fuel and fertilizer.  April 2009 ... Sugarcane
 

Marketing

• American Sugar Alliance - A national association of beet and cane sugar producers.
• American Sugar Cane League - This organization represents Louisiana's sugarcane growers and processors.
• Annual Sugar Production in China, GAIN Report, Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), USDA, 2009.
• Annual Sugar Production in India, GAIN Report, FAS, USDA, 2009.
• Cane for sugar, ethanol and bioelectricity: a global commodity, UNICA (Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association).
  
• Sugar and Sweeteners, Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA.
• Sugar Backgrounder, ERS, USDA, 2007.
• Sustainability of the Sugar Industry: Future Value Addition from Sugarcane, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, 2007 - The authors of this paper believe that the sugar industry should be regarded as a biomass-based industry that manufactures products for the food sector and also value-added biofuels, energy and chemicals for the non-food sector.
• U.S. Imports of Sugar and Sugar-Containing Products, Fact Sheet, FAS, USDA, 2007.
• U.S. Sugar Policy: How It Works, American Sugar Alliance, 2009.
• United States Sugar Corporation.

Production

• Complementary crops in the sugarcane industry, State of Queensland, Australia, 2007.
  
• Crop Production: 2008 Summary, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), USDA, 2009.
• Crop Profile for Sugarcane in Florida, 2008.
• An Overview of Florida Sugarcane, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, revised 2006.
• Production of Biofuel Crops in Florida: Sugarcane/Energycane, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, 2008 - Sugarcane is considered an ideal energy crop because it produces readily fermentable sugars and very high yields of green biomass.
• Sugarcane, Louisiana State University Ag Center.

Processing

• The Economic Feasibility of Ethanol Production from Sugar Crops, Louisiana State University Ag Center, 2007.
• The Economic Feasibility of Ethanol Production from Sugar in the United States, USDA and Louisiana State University, 2006 - The purpose of this report is to investigate the economic feasibility of producing ethanol from such sugar feedstocks as (1) sugarcane juice, (2) sugar beet juice, (3) cane or beet molasses, (4) raw sugar and (5) refined sugar.
• Economics of Sugar-Based Ethanol Production and Related Policy Issues, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 2007 - This article analyzes the feasibility of integrating ethanol production into an existing sugar mill that uses sugarcane juice as the feedstock.
• Brazil's Ethanol Industry, Don Hofstrand, Iowa State University, 2008.
  
• Ethanol from Sugar: What are the prospects for U.S. sugar co-ops?, Rural Cooperatives magazine, USDA, 2006.
• Ethanol from U.S. Sugar Feedstocks: A Sweet or Sour Deal?, Ethanol Producer magazine, 2007 - Examines if U.S. feedstocks customarily used to refine sugar—sugarcane and sugar beets—would make good candidates as ethanol feedstocks.
• The Future of Biofuels: A Global Perspective, Amber Waves magazine, ERS, USDA, 2007.

Businesses/Case Studies

• BC International Corporation, Jennings, Louisiana - This business operates the world’s first commercial facility for manufacturing ethanol from sugarcane wastes. The project, which involves the U.S. Department of Energy, is retrofitting a former petroleum refinery that was more recently used as a molasses-to-ethanol plant.
  
• BP and Verenium in biofuels joint venture, Financial Times, 2009 - Verenium Corporation plans to build a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant that uses cellulosic materials, including sugarcane waste.
• Sugarcane, The New American Farmer, Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education (SARE), USDA - This case study describes Jackie Judice and his family of Franklin, Louisiana. The family improved the soil of their 3,300-acre sugar cane farm, increasing their yield and decreasing their input costs.