Raw Brown Cane Sugar, Grade E, ICUMSA 600-1200

Raw brown cane sugar at ICUMSA 600-1200 is an unrefined cane sugar that keeps part of its natural molasses layer. That molasses is what gives the crystals their brown to golden-brown colour, and it is also what puts the grade at the high end of the ICUMSA scale: ICUMSA measures colour, so a higher number means a darker, less refined sugar.

Because the final refining stage is left to the buyer, raw grades like this one carry a lower cost per tonne than refined white sugars. It is bought in bulk as refinery feedstock, as an input for fermentation and distillation including ethanol production, and as an industrial ingredient in applications where colour is not a constraint.

We export ICUMSA 600-1200 from Brazil in wholesale quantities, in 20ft and 40ft containers.

Raw brown cane sugar specification

Minimum order quantity, packaging and bag format, Incoterms, port of loading, lead time and payment terms are confirmed on quotation, because each moves with volume and destination.

Raw cane sugar vs white sugar: what actually differs

Raw and white sugar are the same molecule. Both are sucrose, both can come off the same cane in the same mill, and the sweetness per gram is for practical purposes identical. What separates them is one processing stage, not one plant.

In the mill, cane juice is boiled until the sugar crystallises and the crystals are spun to throw off the surrounding syrup. Stop there and you have raw sugar: each crystal still wearing a thin film of molasses. Send it on to a refinery and that film is washed off, the remaining non-sugar material and colour are filtered out, and the result is white.

For a buyer the trade is straightforward. Raw sugar is cheaper because you are taking on the refining, either in your own plant or by living with the colour. White sugar costs more because the work is already done. There is no quality judgement in either direction — a refinery buying raw sugar is not buying a lesser product, it is buying the feedstock it was always going to buy.

Where it stops being interchangeable is in the finished article. The residual molasses carries colour and a distinct flavour note into whatever you make, and the coarser, damper crystal dissolves more slowly and meters differently. For a clear drink or a pale icing you want a refined grade; for a dark sauce, a rum wash or a fermentation vessel, the molasses is either irrelevant or the point.

Who buys ICUMSA 600-1200

• Cane refineries, taking it as feedstock to refine to their own white specification

• Distilleries and fermentation plants, including ethanol producers, where only the fermentable sugar content matters and colour does not

• Industrial users, as an ingredient in applications with no colour constraint

• Food manufacturers making products that are already dark, or that want the molasses flavour

How grade E compares with the refined grades

ICUMSA runs from the whitest grades to the darkest, so this product sits at the opposite end of our range from the refined ones:

• ICUMSA 45 sugar — the highest-purity refined grade, 99.8% sucrose

• Refined ICUMSA 35 sugar — refined sugar with a drier, clearer grain

• Crystal white sugar — over 99.7% sucrose, no molasses, no external impurities

• ICUMSA 100 cane sugar — 99.50% minimum polarisation, nearly white, lower cost

• Beverage-grade refined sugar — refined to the parameter set drinks production works to

If you are refining in-house, this grade is your input and those are your competitors' outputs. If you are not, one of the refined grades will almost always be the cheaper answer once you count the cost of dealing with colour. For how the whole scale fits together, see what the ICUMSA number measures.

Packaging, containers and documentation

Orders load in 20ft and 40ft containers, with the bag format confirmed on quotation to suit your handling.

A certificate of purity and an ICUMSA certificate ship with every grade, alongside the export and logistics documentation your destination requires. A certificate of analysis is available on request — worth asking for before you commit, since raw sugar varies within its colour band.

How raw sugar is priced

Raw sugar is the contract the world prices off: ICE No. 11. There is no list price we could publish here that would still be true next week, and quoting one would only mean re-quoting later.

Tell us the volume, the destination and the Incoterm you want and we will price against the market on the day of your enquiry.

Frequently asked questions

Is raw cane sugar the same as brown sugar? No. Most brown sugar sold at retail is refined white sugar with molasses added back in a controlled quantity, which is why it is identical from bag to bag. Raw sugar such as ICUMSA 600-1200 has never had its own molasses removed, so its colour and flavour vary within the grade band.

Can I use raw cane sugar instead of white sugar? By weight the sucrose substitutes directly. In practice it is not a straight swap: the crystals are coarser and damper, they dissolve more slowly, and they carry colour and a molasses note into the finished product. Fine for anything already dark; not for anything clear or pale.

Is raw sugar better for you than refined sugar? The molasses film carries trace non-sucrose material, but in quantities far too small to matter against the amount of sugar you would have to eat to obtain them. Choose raw grades for colour, flavour and cost per tonne, not for nutrition.

Why is ICUMSA 600-1200 given as a range? Because ICUMSA is a colour measurement, and the colour of raw sugar depends on the cane, the mill and the season. A given lot lands somewhere inside the band rather than on a fixed number. If your process has a ceiling on colour, tell us what it is and we will quote against it rather than against the band.

Can you supply it for ethanol production? Yes. Raw sugar at this grade is routinely bought as a fermentation feedstock by distilleries, including ethanol producers, where colour is irrelevant and the fermentable sugar content is the only specification that counts.

What is the polarisation of this grade? It is certified per lot on the certificate of analysis rather than published as a headline figure, because raw sugar varies within its band. If you are refining or fermenting to a minimum polarisation, state it in your enquiry and we will quote against it.

Request a quotation

To quote, we need the grade, the volume and the destination port. Send those three and we will price the order against the market, confirm packaging and prepare the documentation.

If you are refining in-house and working to a colour ceiling or a minimum polarisation, include it in the enquiry and we will tell you straight away whether this grade clears it. Submit the enquiry form below or contact us.