World’s Leading Sugarcane Producing Countries | Economic Geography

Sugarcane is grown in a very wide range of tropical and sub-tropical countries but the largest producers are from two main regions, namely Latin America and southern and eastern Asia. Many of the larger producers, however, such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Brazil, consume all or almost all their own sugar and have little or none for export.

Some of the major exporters, e.g. Taiwan and the West Indian islands such as Jamaica and Barbados, produce only a very small proportion of the world’s sugarcane because of their small size. The main importers of cane sugar are the U.S.A., the U.K. and Japan.

Asia:

India (20 per cent of the world total) is the leading sugarcane producer but has none for export. Much of the sugar is not even refined but is used in its raw form, called gur in India. Sugarcane is grown mainly on the west coast and in the Ganges valley, and irrigation is often used.

In Pakistan, too, irrigated sugarcane is of increasing importance. Pakistan (4 per cent) is now the fourth largest sugar-cane producer. China (6 per cent including Taiwan) grows sugar for local consumption, the main areas being in the warmer south of the country in the Xi River (Si Kiang) basin. Taiwan despite its small size produces a large sugar surplus for export mainly to Japan.

In South-East Asia Thailand is now the leading pro­ducer (3 per cent of the world total) having increased the acreage under the crop fourfold since 1969. Philip­pines (3 per cent) is also a major producer, most of the sugar coming from the islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu and Luzon, north of Manila.

Indonesia (2 per cent) was once a very important sugar producer, most of the crop coming from eastern and central Java, but the crop has declined and Indonesia now has to import supplies to supplement its production, instead of being an exporter. Most other South-East Asian countries produce some sugar for local requirements and, e.g. in Malaysia, are expanding acreages to reduce imports.

Australia:

Australia (3 per cent) produces cane sugar along 1,600 km (1,000 miles) of its eastern coast­line from northern New South Wales into North Queensland. The sugar supplies local demands as well as being exported, mainly to Japan. Australia is rare among cane sugar producers in using white labour.

Prior to 1900 the sugar-cane estates were for a time worked by Pacific islanders, but since then they have been worked by a mainly white labour force. Some mechanization has been introduced but in many areas the cane is still cut by hand. High labour costs raise production costs and Australian sugar-growing is sub­sidized by the government.

Latin America and the Caribbean:

The leading Latin American producer is Brazil (16 per cent), where the main growing areas are the coastal districts in the north-east. Sugar was introduced by the Portuguese and a sugar boom followed, but this collapsed when sugar began to be produced on a large scale in the West Indies. Much of Brazil’s present sugar output is used within the country.

Cuba, where there is a very long tradition of sugar growing, is the leading Caribbean grower, the main sugar areas being along the northern coast from Matanzas, east of Havana, to Holguin. Sugar is still, and has always been, the main feature in the island’s econ­omy and the well-being of the country depends on sugar exports.

The industry is served by more than 160 sugar mills, but output tends to be seasonal and this affects not only the running of the mills but also a large proportion of the country’s workers, who depend on harvesting sugar for a livelihood. The is­land’s economy has tended to be unstable as a result of wide fluctuations in world sugar prices.

Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over the country, the main export market was the U.S.A., but since the Communist Revolution most of the sugar has been sold to the U.S.S.R. Large U.S. plantations and estates were taken over and the land distributed to the workers, but later they were organ­ized into co-operatives and collectives.

Cuban sugar output has tended to decline since the Revolution be­cause of the usual problems of collectivization. Farm­ers have no incentive to work hard and inexperienced workers are drafted to help at harvest time but cut the cane badly, resulting in low yields.

Cuba is still, however, a major cane-sugar exporter and accounts for 8 per cent of world output today. Other important Latin American producers are Mexico (4 per cent), Colombia (3 per cent), Argentina, Peru and Ecuador.

The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Barbados are major West Indian sugar growers. These island states produce little sugar by world standards but the sale of sugar is vital to their economies, es­pecially in the case of Barbados.

U.S.A:

Cane sugar is grown in two main parts of the U.S.A., the Gulf coastlands of Louisiana and the Pa­cific island state of Hawaii. Here the industry is very highly mechanized from planting to cutting because of the lack of cheap labour, or indeed any large labour force.

As a result the costs of production are very high and the industry has to be subsidized and protected by tariffs in order to survive. The U.S.A. also grows sugar-beet at high cost but the U.S. Government be­lieves that the cost of subsidizing the industry is worth­while to reduce reliance on imports.

The other significant pro­ducers of sugar are the islands of Mauritius in the In­dian Ocean and Fiji in the Pacific, where sugar-cane is grown by Indian immigrants mainly for export. In Natal, South Africa, sugar-cane is also an important crop.