Sugar has been a widely used ingredient in the human diet for many years. Refined table sugar was once expensive and rare to the point of being called "white gold". Today, white sugar is considered a staple in everyday use. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Sugar is grown in two main ways. The majority of the sugar supply, approximately 80%, comes from sugarcane. Sugarcane requires a tropical climate to grow, such as Brazil. The rest of the sugar comes from sugar beets, grown primarily in the United States and other countries that do not have a tropical climate. Worldwide, more than 100 countries produce sugar from sugar cane or sugar beet, and some countries from both. Brazil, India, the European Union and China are among the main sugar producers. There are many factors that drive the supply and demand of sugar. The price of sugar decreases as demand increases, following the law of demand. When the supply of sugar increases, the price also increases, obeying the law of supply. Because alternatives to sugar are limited, the supply of sugar is relatively inelastic. This chart shows recent changes in supply and demand for sugar. The supply of sugar is highly dependent on weather conditions, like most agricultural commodities. Currently, favorable conditions have allowed sugar-producing countries to prosper and increase production, even creating a surplus. The demand for sugar is constantly increasing, because today sugar is not only used in food production, but is also an important factor in the production of biofuels. Today the international community has become much more environmentally aware. This has led to the growth of alternative energy resources to fossil fuels. One such alternative is biofuel, where sugar is an important input material, as it is replacing corn due to increased efficiency and is becoming the main input in biofuel production. Furthermore, the growth of the world's population has led to an increased demand for sugar. These changes resulted in greater demand and even greater supply of sugar, thus increasing the quantity produced and consumed, while prices fell as demand increased. The highest price of sugar was in the first half of 2012, where the graph starts. In phase A there is a clear decline, with some small exceptions, particularly in July 2012, where prices increased significantly for a short period. The lowest point in sugar prices occurred in the second half of 2015, when phase A ends. Phase B sees an increase in sugar prices, with the fastest growth occurring in the second half of 2015. At the beginning In 2016, prices dropped once again, but soon started rising again. Another significant drop occurred in the second half of 2016. In early 2017 you can see how sugar prices started to increase once again. Since the end of 2011, sugar prices have been declining. Primarily, this downward path in sugar prices stems from global excess production. This is why sugar prices fell so much between 2012 and 2015. In general, rising global sugar production and surpluses usually drive prices down. On the contrary, the decrease in global sugar production.