The illustration below depicts the stepwise process by which sugar is obtained from sugarcane, from farm to table.
The process of planting and harvesting the sugarcane plant usually takes about a year, but can be as long as eighteen months.
At maturation, the sugarcane is retrieved from its plant. Harvesting can be done manually by the farmer, or preferrably with the use of high- end agricultural machines known as harvesters. This equipment can be self-driven or automated, it functions by picking up the sugarcane with prongs located anteriorly, and are subsequently transported to a storage bank attached to it via a conveyor belt.
Following this, the sugarcane plants are crushed by a heavy duty crusher to obtain all of its juice. The next step is pouring the juice through a limestone filter to remove any impurities. The purified liquid is the heated in an evaporator to transform it into syrup, while giving off burning steam. A high speed centrifuge then separates the substance into 2 seperate constituents, which are the syrup and sugar crystals. The crystals are then dried and cooled, ready for consumptions