By Jonah Meadows, The Times-Picayune
The Florida-based owners of the 117-year-old Domino Sugar Chalmette Refinery announced Tuesday they have begun construction on the first phase of a nearly $800 million expansion at the facility, an investment that signals Louisiana's continued central role in the American sugar trade.
Executives from plant owner ASR Group, the world's largest refiner of cane sugar, were joined by state and parish officials for the groundbreaking of a new processing building at the Arabi refinery, the largest in the Western Hemisphere.