A long and ancient history. The history of sugar began more than 3000 years ago. For many years, this history was dominated by cane sugar. Its rival, sugar beet, only enters our story from the 19th century onwards.

New horizons

Sugar cane farming was limited to a small area in Antiquity. Between the 4th and 7th centuries, it was mainly grown in the Indus Delta and Persian Gulf.


During this period, the Persians constantly perfected their farming and processing techniques. They probably also devised sugar loaves, which were easier to transport. From the 7th century, the Arab conquests opened up new horizons and sugar went on to conquer the world.

The Arabs

It took fifteen centuries for sugar to cross the borders of India into Iran. It took less than two to spread to the whole of the Mediterranean bassin. The Arabs discovered it in Persia and immediately adopted it.


From then onwards, sugar cane farming spread with the Muslim conquests through Palestine then, in the 8th century, Syria and Egypt where the plantations grew in size and number along the Nile. In the 9th century, it began to be cultivated in the Arabo-Andalusian kingdom of southern Spain. It also reached the islands of Cyprus, Crete, Malta and Sicily.


Although sugar cane benefited from the lands conquered by the Arabs, it also profited from their know-how. They developed farming techniques like irrigation and, as good engineers, they perfected extraction and transformation techniques. The culinary uses of sugar developed too, when cooks invented the first syrups and sweet pastries.

The Crusades

The Crusades and the campaign to reconquer the Holy Land helped to spread the use of sugar cane even further. From the first crusade (1096-1099), pilgrims discovered sugar and brought it back to their countries. Some grew sugar, especially on the islands of the Mediterranean retrieved from the Arabs.