While it has undergone some of the bleaching processes that separate refined from raw sugar in more technologically advanced sugar industries, it still contains a relatively high level of impurities, mainly molasses, in comparison with internationally traded raw sugar. As a result most firms in the food and beverage sectors cannot use plantation white sugar as an input. Their needs are met partly by imports of refined sugar, and partly by imports of raw sugar that are then refined domestically (Fane and Warr, 2008).