Hey, Sugar!!

We drove back from Naples via Floride Route 80 which goes across the southern shore of Lake Okeechobbee. Whereas the northern route featured orange groves and cattle, this route was all sugarcane. Everywhere we looked there were huge fields of sugar cane stretching to the horizon.

Photo: Fully grown Sugarcane fields as seen from the car.

Florida is the nation’s largest producer of sugar cane and cane sugar, providing more than 25% of the nation’s sugar supply. Florida’s sugar industry has a more than $2 billion dollar economic impact on the state’s economy and provides tens of thousands of jobs statewide. Florida sugar farmers produce approximately two million tons of raw and refined sugar annually.

The giant grass is grown on approximately 450,000 acres of rich farmland along the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highlands, and Martin counties. There are six raw sugar mills and two sugar refineries in the Glades. More than 150 sugarcane-farming operations produce nearly 20 million tons of cane annually. Photo: Just planted sugarcane.

From a historical perspective, the Moors who invaded Spain in the 11th Century introduced the art of making sugar from sugarcane through a crystallization process. Later, Christopher Columbus brought sugarcane to the West Indies on his second voyage to the New World. In Florida, sugarcane first took root in Cape Canaveral, which is the Spanish word for cane field. No doubt remnants of the stalks’ ancient cultivation still lie beneath the Capes’ launching pads.

Present day sugar operations began in the late 1920’s when Southern Sugar Company first grew sugarcane in the Clewiston area before going into receivership in 1929. U.S. Sugar Corporation purchased that company and ground its first crop of sugar in 1931 at its present Clewiston mill. A second area mill at Okeelanta (now owned by Florida Crystals) followed in 1947, with the other local sugar mills beginning operations in the early 1960’s.

The planting of sugarcane, a tropical plant in the grass family, begins in late August and continues through February. A stalk of sugarcane is cut into several pieces for planting. A cane stalk has joints, similar to bamboo, which sprout and produce new cane plants. The crop takes 12-15 months to mature. Basking in Florida’s abundant sunshine, plentiful rainfall and rich soils, the cane stalk reaches heights of 10-12 feet.

The harvesting of the sugarcane crop begins in mid-October and continues through April. All Florida sugarcane is mechanically harvested. Fields are burned prior to harvest to eliminate extraneous leafy material. Sugarcane is usually delivered to the mill and processed within 24 hours of harvest. During the harvest season, Florida’s mills operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.