The molasses from beets is not sold to the public due to purification difficulties. Oliver de Seres first introduced beet sugar to the European in 1590. There is no difference between beet crystals and sugarcane crystals. However, the majority of sugar today comes from sugarcane. Over the years sugar has become more useful than just a simple sweetener.
Sugar is used in curing tobacco and other food products.
It is also an essential ingredient in the production of ethyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, glycerin, citric acid, and levulinic acid. If the Europeans had much to gain from Columbus discovery of the Americas, the natives did not. Slave labor flooded the Europeans with cheap goods, but destroyed much of the native population who was ravaged by disease and neglect. Luckily today, the colonization horrors of the past have subsided and sugar continues to be a strong source of income for much of the West Indies and other tropical countries around the world. Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean all cultivate sugar as a major export crop.