Sugar: Characteristics
Purity and whiteness: how sugar is graded
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 185 Mt of centrifugal sugar (2026/27 forecast); 1.94 billion t of cane and 294 Mt of beet harvested (2024) | Cane supplies most of the world's sugar. Beet comes from temperate countries. Brazil (42.5 Mt) and India (33.6 Mt) together make 41% of world sugar in 2026/27. | USDA PSD, Oct 2026; FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Inventory and stock levels | world ending stocks about 44.4 Mt (2026/27), roughly 25% of a year's use or about 3 months | Stocks are mostly held by governments and mills, not exchanges. Thailand (13.5 Mt) and India (6.5 Mt in USDA's count) hold large shares. ISMA expects Indian closing stocks of 7.45 Mt for 2025-26, about three months of consumption. China keeps state reserves, but volumes are not published. Days of cover use ISO's 180.1 Mt consumption estimate for 2025/26. | USDA PSD, Oct 2026; ISMA 2025-26; ISO, Feb 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published as a world figure | Mills run only during the crushing season, so utilisation is usually expressed as crush and recovery. India ran 541 mills in 2025-26 and recovered 9.56% sugar from 286.5 Mt of cane crushed to mid-April 2026. India's ethanol capacity (853 crore litres a year) exceeds what sugar diversion (3.4 Mt sugar equivalent in 2025-26) can feed, so distilleries also run on grain. | ISMA 2025-26; CropGPT industry data, April 2026 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | Cane: Brazil 39.2%, top-3 67.8%, HHI 2,169. Beet: HHI 841. Sugar output: Brazil 23.0%, top-3 (Brazil, India, EU) 49.0%. Exports: Brazil 51.4% of value | Production is moderately concentrated, but exports are highly concentrated in Brazil. The largest single miller, Raizen, crushed 70.5 Mt of cane, about 12% of the Centre-South crush of 607.4 Mt. A top-5 company share is not published. | FAOSTAT 2024; USDA PSD 2026/27; UN Comtrade 2024; Safras & Mercado; Datagro |
| Supply elasticity | short run: medium in Brazil through the sugar-ethanol mix; long run: 1-2 years for new cane | Brazilian mills raised the sugar mix from 48.1% to about 52% between 2024/25 and 2025/26, which shifts several million tonnes of sugar within one season. New cane takes a year or more to reach its first cut and is then ratooned for several years, so area responds with a lag. India's export quotas (1.5 Mt for 2025-26) make its supply response a policy decision. | Datagro 2025/26; Department of Food and Public Distribution, Nov 2025 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no large greenfield pipeline published; growth comes from Brazilian crush and Indian ethanol | Brazil's Centre-South crush was 607.4 Mt in 2025/26. India has built ethanol capacity of 853 crore litres a year, which lets it divert surplus sugar. Project-level CapEx figures were not found in the sources used. | Datagro 2025/26; ISMA 2025-26 |
| Logistics and export flows | about 32% of world output is traded (about 59 Mt of imports against 185 Mt of output, 2026/27) | Raw sugar moves in bulk carriers from Santos and Paranagua to destination refineries in Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Morocco and the Gulf. Long berthing line-ups at Santos are the main bottleneck. India's exports depend on the annual quota. The Middle East imports about 9.0 Mt a year. | USDA PSD 2026/27 (import total derived from the Middle East's 15.4% share); content_v2 trading notes |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Sugar is traded as nearly pure sucrose, so commercial value turns on how pure and how white it is. Purity is measured as polarisation (degrees of sucrose) and colour in ICUMSA units. Raw sugar for refining is brownish and slightly impure; white sugar is near 100% sucrose. Moisture and grain size matter for storage, caking and the needs of industrial users.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polarisation (raw sugar) | basis 96 degrees for ICE Sugar No.11; Brazilian VHP raws are typically about 99 degrees or more | Sets premiums and discounts against the futures price and how much refining is needed | ICE Sugar No.11 rules (indicative) |
| Polarisation (white sugar) | at least 99.8 degrees for ICE White Sugar No.5 | Defines deliverable refined sugar for the London white contract | ICE White Sugar No.5 rules (indicative) |
| Colour | ICUMSA 45 or below for refined white; raws several hundred to over 1,000 IU | Food and drink buyers pay for whiteness; colour separates refined, plantation white and raw sugar | ICUMSA method; ICE No.5 specification (indicative) |
| Moisture | about 0.06% maximum for refined white sugar | Higher moisture causes caking and microbial spoilage in storage | ICE White Sugar No.5 (indicative) |
| Grain size | Indian grades by crystal size, e.g. S-30 and M-30 (small and medium) | Confectioners and beverage makers specify crystal size for dissolving and texture | BIS / Indian trade grades (indicative) |
| Recovery from cane | about 9.6% sugar by weight of cane in India (2025-26) | Sets how much cane a mill needs per tonne of sugar and its cane cost per tonne | ISMA / industry data, April 2026 |