Sugar is produced in around 120 countries. Of the approximately 123 million tonnes produced in 1995, most came from the densely populated countries of Asia. India was the world's largest producer with more than 18 million tonnes, followed by the European Union with nearly 16 million tonnes, Brazil (nearly 13 million tonnes), China and Thailand with more than 6 million tonnes. Some 70 per cent of the total production is cane sugar, the rest being beet sugar.
With the continuing increase in the production of cane sugar and stagnation of beet sugar production, there is a significant shift in favour of cane sugar. In the majority of countries, most sugar production is for domestic consumption. China and India, for example, hardly export any sugar. Nearly 30% of the world's sugar production is traded internationally.
Since 1995, Brazil has been the largest exporter with a market share of 18%, thus having overtaken the European Union (15.6%), which occupied the number one position for many years. Other important exporters are Australia (13.2%), Thailand (11.2%), Cuba (7.5%), Ukraine (6%) and Guatemala (3%). These seven countries together account for almost three quarters of the sugar sold on the world market. The developing countries together have a world market share of 60%. Although the world market share of the exporting countries not mentioned above is low, for many of them sugar is an important source of foreign exchange.