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For a while, it looked as if Louisiana's crop wouldn't be so hot. Winter downpours followed by a dry spring reduced the harvest by 2 million tons. Ted Broussard, who farms 3,250 acres along the Atchafalaya Basin, said last year was his worst ever in terms of tons of cane harvested per acre, but the sugar content was his best ever. And, with rising prices, he's in good shape. "The price of sugar is where it's never been before," he said. "We're able to pay down a lot of debt and move forward." Louisiana and Florida together produce about 92 percent of the U.S. sugarcane. Florida plants a bit less sugar than Louisiana but usually harvests more because its farms are farther south. Its crop this year has been hurt by a December freeze that helped boost domestic prices more than 2 cents a pound, LSU AgCenter economist Mike Salassi said. Florida's harvest runs through March. "We're still waiting to see what happens with their yields," Roney said. A cold wave in India and drought in Brazil -- which produces about 45 percent of total world exports
-- and in China have helped reduce the supply worldwide.
Also, farmers in the U.S. and elsewhere switched some land from sugarcane to corn and soybeans last year to profit from high grain prices. That helped push the world sugar price to 25 to 30 cents a pound, Salassi said. "When you add 3 to 5 cents freight fare, even if USDA wanted to bring in more sugar to lower our domestic price, they couldn't afford to do it because the world price is so high," he said. ___ Online: Louisiana State University AgCenter: Sugar Alliance: http://www.sugaralliance.org/ Laurel Street Bakery: Evans Creole Candy Factory:
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/
http://www.laurelstreetbakery.com/
http://www.evanscreolecandy.com/
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