Chic African Culture Blog

Did you know?

1. No African country names begin with the letters F, H, I, J, O, P, Q, V, W, X, or Y.

2. Africa is surrounded by water but by definition Africa is not an island because Africa is a continent.

3. The Republic of the Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa.

African Culture is World Heritage

Appreciate Africa through African art, food, proverb sayings, folklore, biographies, spirituality and African living history.

Egypt has the World’s Largest Sugar Silo

Egypt's Canal Sugar has the world’s largest Sugar Silo used for housing processed sugar beets and sugar cane. 

Doughnuts made from sugar beets
Doughnuts made from sugar beets 

Sugar comes from sugar beets and sugar cane plants. Egypt produces around 2.5 million tones of sugar annually with the Canal Sugar Company alone producing 900,000 tons annually with the largest sugar silo in the world with a storage capacity of about 417,000 tons.

A sugar silo is a structure for housing bulk products from the manufacturing of sugar beets and sugar cane. The Canal Sugar has the world’s largest Sugar Silo with a diameter of 406 feet, a depth of 213 feet, and a height of 131 feet which is about 3/4 times as wide as The Washington Monument and ¼ feet as tall. The enormous concrete Canal Sugar Company Sugar Silo looks exactly like a dome sugar canister but much larger.

Around 77 percent of sugarcane is cultivated in Upper Egypt, this crop is considered a traditional crop cultivated since 1952. Main production areas for sugarcane are Menya, Sohag, Qena, and Aswan where sugarcane processing plants are located. Sugarcane is not only the main source for sugar locally and globally, but it also provides many essential industries with raw materials.

Canal Sugar Company is a sugar beet factory with the worlds largest sugar silo.

In Egypt, there are 16 sugar processors, eight processing sugarcane and seven processing sugar beets. Upper Egypt enjoys an optimum sugar growing environment with many hours of sun, high light intensity, and significant differences in day and night temperatures.

Canal Sugar Company is located in Nasr City, a district of Cairo, Egypt. Cairo is the capital of Egypt, the third largest city in Africa and the largest city in the Arab world. Sugar is one of the world’s oldest documented products from around 8,000 BCE.

Cookies made from Canal Sugar Company sugar
Cookies made from Canal Sugar Company sugar

Egypt’s Canal Sugar sugar beet factory produces 900,000 tons a year of white sugar and started production in 2021. The Canal Sugar has the world’s largest Sugar Silo with a diameter of 124 meters, a depth of 65 meters, and a height of 40 meters and is majority owned by the United Arab Emirates  businessman Jamal al-Ghurair. The world’s largest Sugar Silo went into production May 2022 total investments of the project are estimated at about one billion US dollars. 

Sugar beets and sugar cane plants contain between 14 to 16 percent sucrose. Sugar is naturally white. When the sugar is initially extracted from the plants, it has a golden color because of the non-sugar materials attached to and within the sugar crystals. 

This golden sugar is then purified, where these plant fibers and molasses are removed, extracting the sugar molecules from the non-sugar materials and restoring the sugar crystals to their natural white color.

Sugar is one of the world’s oldest documented commodities
Sugar is one of the world’s oldest documented commodities

Sugarcane and sugar beets are the key crops for the Egyptian sugar industry with beet pulp and molasses as important by-products throughout Egypt. Moreover, sugarcane is the most efficient tropical plant in receiving and storing solar energy and converting it into sugar. Upper Egypt enjoys an ideal sugar growing environment with many hours of sun, high light intensity, and significant differences in day and night temperatures.


Africa is surrounded by water but is not an island, here are a few African Island facts.

Madagascar is the 4th large island in the world and is located in the Indian Ocean supporting a unique biology, about 90% of its plants and animals are found nowhere else on earth.

Composed of 155 islands, Seychelles is Africa's smallest country. By far the largest island is Mahe, home to about 90% of the population and the site of its capital city of Victoria.

Cabo Verde has a strategic location 310 miles or 500 km from the west coast of Africa near major north-south sea routes; important communications station; important sea and air refueling site.

Africa is surrounded by water but by definition Africa is not an island because Africa is a continent. Continents can not be considered islands because of their size and also by historic definition since many people who study geography define islands and continents as two different things.

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African cultures express, encourage, and communicate energy

African cultures express, encourage, and communicate energy

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Being African in America I have grown up learning about different ethnic cultures. My father and mother are historians of African culture and history and their influence expanded my activities to several best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded products, and a popular African culture and food blog.

Chic African Culture

Be better than average and support African history and culture. Since 2008 Chic African Culture and The African Gourmet highlight Africa through her food and culture. Contact us culture1africangourmet@gmail.com

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