Alum is a salt that in chemistry is a combination of an alkali metal, such as sodium, potassium, or ammonium and a trivalent metal, such as aluminum, iron, or chromium.
USDA allocates a share of the anticipated U.S. sugar market to sugar producers annually. This allotment basically determines the amount of sugar an individual company is allowed to sell that year. However, these allotments can be, and often are, adjusted based on harvest conditions.
After going through a sluggish growth in the 1990s, which hardly exceeded 2,2% per annum, sugar consumption has grown at an healthy rate since the early 2000s, notably in Asia (+4,9% p.a.), the Middle-East (+4,6% p.a.) and Africa (+4,1% p.a.).