At the 100th American Sugar Cane League meeting this week, American Sugar Cane League director Jim Simon reported that the Louisiana sugarcane industry produced more than two million tons of raw sugar in 2022 for the first time and is now the number one cane sugar-producing state in the United States.

“It’s true that the Christmas freeze soured the end of our harvest season, and instead of a bumper crop, we had a good crop. Sugarcane has been attracting new farmers because it is a reliable crop and well-suited for Louisiana’s climate.” – Jim Simon

The 2022 crop wrapped up on January 21, 2023, after grinding more than 17.1 million tons of cane to produce 2.05 million tons of raw sugar. Of the state’s 11 mills, three ground more than two million cane tons each, a first. Sugarcane acreage has been steadily increasing for the last ten years, especially in Vermilion Parish and the northern cane belt parishes of Pointe Coupee, Avoyelles, and Rapides. State acreage is now 480,000 for milling purposes, a 102,000-acre increase since 2015.