Marketing Industrial Molasses in the United States

Excerpts from the report Introduction: Industrial molasses (molasses used for other purposes than human consumption) is an agricultural raw material whose production is of growing importance in the United States. The quantities used both for livestock feed and in the manufacture of a number of industrial products have increased at a fairly steady rate since the end of World War II. Recent changes in domestic and foreign sources of supply, together with shifts in utilization, have introduced new problems in the marketing of industrial molasses. Prices sometimes fluctuate widely, resulting in irregular returns to producers and causing difficulties for users who may find molasses an uneconomical ingredient of their products when prices are high. Variations in quality, particularly of imported molasses, have adversely affected the operations of certain users. The analysis in this report is confined primarily to molasses produced from sugarbeets and sugarcane. The purposes of the report are (1) to identify and evaluate trends in marketing practices and in the utilization of various types of industrial molasses; (2) to describe the nature and economic implications of the changing competitive positions of industrial molasses and its principal substitutes; and (3) to analyze the effects of recent changes in industrial molasses supply sources on marketing practices. The information on which the report is based was obtained from interviews with representative producers, distributors, and users of industrial molasses, and from various secondary sources. Data cover the years 1948-65.