The flowchart illustrates how sugar is produced from sugar cane. Overall, this heavily mechanized process comprises seven steps, which can be grouped into four main stages: farming of canes, harvesting, crushing and refining. It is also clear that this process is quite complex and machine-intensive.
It all starts with canes being cultivated in fields, a process that usually takes between twelve and eighteen months. Once mature, the canes are harvested either manually by workers or mechanically using a tractor-mounted harvester.
In the next stage, the harvested canes are fed into a machine in order to derive juice. The now-extracted liquid is then purified by passing it through a limestone filter. This purified juice is subsequently heated in an evaporator, turning it into syrup. Following this, the syrup is rotated in a circular machine applying centrifugal force in order to separate sugar crystals from the liquid. In the final step, these crystals are dried and cooled, producing the refined sugar ready for consumption.