South America sugar output by country1827-1988

Since the late 19^th century, Brazil has generally been the largest producer of sugar in South America, and has emerged as the world's largest sugar producer since the 1960s. Sugar output grew relatively similarly and consistently for most South American countries in the 20^th century, however Brazil's sugar output experienced exponential growth from the 1920s onwards. In the years shown here, Brazil's sugzar output peaked at 9.6 million metric tons in 1974; this was more than six times larger than Argentina's output, which was the second largest sugar producer in South America in this year.

Guyana

Data reaching as far back as 1827 is available for Guyana, due to the records kept by merchants while it was still a British colony. Despite its relatively small size, Guyana's sugar output was larger than that of most other South American countries until the late-20^th century, due to the legacy of slave and indentured labor which fueled the sugar industry's growth in Guyana throughout the 1800s and early 1900s.