production of pulp and paper. Molasses is an internationally traded commodity. It is used as an input into the production of alcohol and chemicals, and as an animal feed.

International statistics on the sugar industry distinguish raw sugar, centrifugal sugar, white refined sugar, and non centrifugal sugar. Raw sugar is brown sugar which includes molasses and various impurities at the stage before it is crystallized. By centrifugal sugar is meant raw sugar which has been crystallized and most of the molasses spun off by the use of a centrifuge. In developed countries, most white sugar is sugar that has undergone one further refining process. There are various degrees of refining and the consequent purity and consistency of sugar crystals. As in other developing countries (e.g. Indonesia) most of the mill sugar produced and consumed in India is _plantation white,_ meaning sugar that has undergone a first stage of refining at the mill, but which is less refined than the refined white sugar consumed in developed countries. It also sells at a discount from the world price of fully refined white sugar when it is traded internationally. Non centrifugal sugar is a sugar-like material ( in India known as gur or jaggery) which includes the molasses. It is produced by primitive artisanal processes and mostly consumed in rural areas. In north-western India, mainly in UP, there is also very substantial production of _khandsari,_ which is a type of sugar produced by small scale country mills with the use of a centrifuge ( see below). However the Indian statistics do not distinguish khandsari from gur production, and in the international production statistics khandsari is lumped together with gur as a non-centrifugal sugar. With khandsari included, India is by far the largest world producer of non-centrifugal sugar, accounting for about two-thirds of world production. However its share in the total usage ("drawal rate") of sugar cane has been declining, from around 70 percent in the mid 1960s to around 40 percent in the early 1990s ( Data S4). Correspondingly, the share of non-centrifugal sugar in total world production has declined from about 1 5 percent in the mid 1960s to about 10 percent in the 1990s. As discussed later, the quality of the sugar produced by the unregulated khandsari units in India has been improving to the point that much is barely distinguishable from mill sugar, so that with khandsari included, by the 1990s the share of crystallized sugar in total sugar cane usage would have been well above above 60 percent. Correspondingly, with khandsari included ,the _defacto_ share of India in world sugar production would have been considerably higher than reported in FAO and other statistics. Indian trade statistics make no attempt to distinguish khandsari from mill sugar however, and are therefore not distorted by the omission of khandsari.

Raw sugar is less expensive to transport than refined sugar, and in the past most international trade (and also domestic trade in large countries) was in raw sugar, which was shipped to major consumption centers for refining. However, exporters of raw sugar are now shifting towards refined sugar in order to take advantage of the price premium for refined sugar in world markets. Whereas in the mid- 1 960s the share of refined sugar in total international trade in sugar was about a quarter, by the 1990s this had increased to approximately half (Data S5). Most of the white sugar traded is fully refined, but a number of developing countries import partly refined plantation white sugar. There is practically no international trade in non-centrifugal sugar (see Data S5 and Data S8).

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