Would a Spoonful of Sugar Help: Is Competition Structure in the U.S. Raw Cane Sugar Refining Sector Changing?

U.S. sugar industry concentration was highlighted when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to stop the United States Sugar Corporation (U.S. Sugar) from acquiring the sugar assets of Louis Dreyfus Co (a.k.a. Imperial Sugar) in 2021. This EBOT—the third and final in a series—outlines geographic and firm concentration in the U.S. cane sugar refining industry. This analysis includes traditional as well as non-traditional refiners. Non-traditional refiners, including Sugaright, Sucro, and California Sugar Refiners, are relative newcomers to the industry and primarily produce refined liquid sugar. While closings and acquisitions increased concentration based on only traditional raw sugar refining capacity, increasing non-traditional refining capacity offsets some of that concentration.