- Sugar Mills: Nature of Raw material
- Indian Sugar Mills: Location factors
- Cuba, the Sugar bowl
- Sugar beet
- Banana Plantations
In the previous article, we discuss the geographical factors affecting the location of rubber plantations, now let’s move to the next topic:
Sugar mills are located near sugar growing areas, because of two factors
Sugar Mill and sugar refinery of two separate location principles
|Sugar mill||Sugar refinery|
|Input||sugarcane||raw Coarse brown sugar (from sugar mill)|
|output||Brown and white sugars of various grades.|
|Must be located near sugar-farming areas because sugarcane being bulky-perishable. e.g. in Uttar Pradesh, Maharahstra, South Gujarat.|
Let’s examine the factors that led to growth Desi-videsi sugar industries
Limiting factor=proximity to raw material. So sugar mills are located in 30-50 kms radius of sugar-cultivating areas.
|water||Ganga, Yamuna and their numerous tributaries|
|energy||use bagasse instead of coal for energy.|
|transport||Dense road-network, flat terrain =easy transport.|
|labor||Seasonal and migratory labour available=cost of production low.|
|market||large population=> high demand for gur, khandsari, sugar.|
|govt.||sugar pricing=covered in a separate article. click me|
- In South India: No loo, no frost+ moderating effect of ocean=ideal for sugarcane growth.
- But the sugarcane cultivate/industry in South India is not as large as UP-Maharashtra belt, Why?
- During British-raj, North India used to cultivate indigo as cash crop but then invention of synthetic dyes=>farmers switched to sugarcane.
- In South India, farmers have better cash-crop alternatives e.g. cotton, tobacco, coconut, groundnut etc. so you don’t see a large sugarbelt unlike UP.
- developed by Research insti. @Coimbatore
- ratoon crop= during harvest, you don’t uproot sugarcane, leave the root intact => sugarcane grows again from that root.
- Advantage: time, money saved.
- challenge: sugar-yield decreases on every cycle, after 1-2 years, you need to start fresh.
|sugarcane||Fertile calcareous soil= Crops are obtained twice a year.|
|labor||Initially started using slave labor.|
Now passing references
|Mauritius, Fiji||sugarcane Grown with help of indentured labour from India.|
- German-climate unsuitable for sugar-cultivation.
- They had to rely on imports=sugar-shortage during wartime.
- Therefore, Germans developed a method to extract Sugar from sugar beet, and encouraged the cultivation of sugar beet for the strategic reasons of self reliance during war-time.
- Later industry spread in Belgium and France as well.
- In European countries, cool autumn retains the sugar content in root= higher yields.
- Sugar juice makes up to 20% of the root= significant weightloss. Therefore, just like sugarcane, sugar beet must be processed quickly at nearby factories
- But sugarbeet Factories cannot be fed consistently and only operate during the harvest season= increases cost of running.
Just passing reference
- fruit ripens very quickly.
- without refrigerated boats, impossible to ship product from tropics to US/EU market.
- banana producing regions nearest to major markets have trade advantage. e.g. Caribbean islands
In the next article, we will discuss the geographical factors affecting the location of tea and coffee plantations.