Raw sugar is the product from which refined sugars are made. It is also consumed in some parts of the world as a foodstuff in its own right. The bulk of the world’s sugar exports are made up of raw sugar, the most notable exporter of raw sugar being Brazil, which exports VHP raw sugar in massive amounts, often exceeding twenty million tons, every year.

Raw sugar is extracted from sugar cane or sugar beet. Sugar cane is the primary source of raw sugar, as it is the most commonly grown sugar source in the world. Sugar cane grows well in tropical and subtropical climates, such as those in Brazil, India, and Thailand. Brazil and India are the world’s top two sugar producing nations in the world, and Thailand is the world’s second largest sugar exporting nation. Sugar beet is grown as a sugar source in countries which have less clement weather, such as Russia, which refines all its domestic sugar from sugar beet.

The ways in which sugar is extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet are quite different. Sugar cane is harvested in the field, then taken to the mill, where the leaves are stripped (if they have not already been burned off before harvesting), and the cane is washed. The cane is then shredded and chopped before being fed through mills which crush it, squeezing the sucrose rich juice out of the cells of the cane.

The sugar cane juice is then fed into a tank, where excess pieces of cane which slipped through with the juice are skimmed off the top of the juice. What happens next depends on whether or not the sugar is to be processed into VHP sugar (very high pol sugar), or if it is simply to be raw sugar. Some mills simply boil the juice to concentrate the sugar, then allow it to cool. The sucrose in the sugar crystallizes, along with glucose, fructose, minerals, and a fair amount of biological contaminants, and is then sold to refineries which refine it further.

Sugar beets are harvested from the fields, washed, and then sliced very thinly. Unlike sugar cane, they are not crushed, but are fed into a machine called a hot water diffuser. The hot water diffuser streams hot water past the slices of sugar beet, dissolving the sucrose in the beet flesh, and carrying it away for processing.

Extracting sugar crystals from sugar beet is done in the same way as with sugar cane, the juice is boiled and allowed to crystallize into raw brown sugar.

Cane sugar requires further processing to provide the free-flowing white table sugar required by the consumer. The sugar may be transported in bulk to the country where it will be used and the refining process often takes place there.

• The first stage is known as affination and involves immersing the sugar crystals in a concentrated syrup which softens and removes the sticky brown coating without dissolving them.
• The crystals are then separated from the liquor and dissolved in water.
• The resulting syrup is either treated by a carbonatation or a phosphatation process. Both involve the precipitation of a fine solid in the syrup and when this is filtered out, a lot of the impurities are removed at the same time.
• Removal of colour is achieved by either using a granular activated carbon or an ion-exchange resin.
• The sugar syrup is concentrated by boiling and then cooled and seeded with sugar crystals causing the sugar to crystallize out.
• The liquor is spun in a centrifuge and the white crystals are dried in hot air, ready to be packaged or used. The surplus liquor is made into refiners' molasses.