Sugar Refining
In 1998, U.S. Sugar commissioner the Clewiston Refinery, the nation’s first fully integrated cane sugar refinery ever built in the United States. The 12-story, 300,000-square-foot facility is part of the newly automated and consolidated Clewiston Sugar Factory, the world’s largest fully integrated cane sugar milling and refining facility.

The refinery includes refining, packaging and warehousing operations, producing a full spectrum of sugar products — from 2-pound consumer bags to 200,000-pound bulk rail cars of sugar to the food processing industry.

The Clewiston Refinery’s integration with the raw milling process results in significant operational efficiencies. Just like U.S. Sugar’s raw mill, the refinery is powered by bagasse, the tough fibrous byproduct of sugar cane that remains after the juice is extracted.

U.S. Sugar farms sugarcane on more than 150,000 acres of land in South Florida. The company’s raw mill can process up to 42,000 tons of cane each day of the harvest season. This raw sugar is piped directly into the refinery where any molasses and impurities are removed from the sugar, producing the familiar white “pure cane sugar” that is the gold standard of natural sweeteners. The refinery operates more than 300 days each year, enabling U.S. Sugar to take its product from the cane fields in Florida all the way to America’s kitchens.

REFINERY FACTS

• Industrial Packaging Line packages 18-24 25#, 50# or 100# bags per minute


• Consumer Packaging Line:
  • LITTLE SIG (PBD) packages 80 2#, 4# or 5# bags per minute
  • BIG SIG (PRD) packages 110 5# bags per minute
    
    
• American Institute of Baking rated Superior for the past 10 years