Cane sugar mill in the context of Puʻunene, Hawaii

Engenho (Portuguese pronunciation: [ẽˈʒẽɲu]) is a colonial-era Portuguese term for a sugar cane mill and the associated facilities. In Spanish-speaking countries such as Cuba and Puerto Rico, they are called ingenios. Both words mean engine (from latin ingenium). The word engenho usually only referred to the mill, but it could also describe the area as a whole including land, a mill, the people who farmed and who had a knowledge of sugar production, and a crop of sugar cane. A large estate was required because of the massive amount of labor needed to yield refined sugar, molasses, or rum from raw sugar cane. These estates were prevalent in Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and other countries in the Caribbean. Today, Brazil is still one of the world's major producers of sugar. Sugarcane cultivation has resulted in deforestation and environmental devastation of Brazil's Atlantic Forest since the onset of colonization.

A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar.

Cane sugar mills traditionally produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more coloration (and impurities) than the white sugar which is normally consumed in households and used as an ingredient in soft drinks and foods. Raw cane sugar does not need refining to be palatable. It is refined for reasons such as health, color, and the requirement for a pure sugar taste. Raw sugar is stable for transport and can be taken from mills to locations for processing into white sugar. Cane sugar mills / factories often produce a partially refined product called Plantation (or Mill) White for their local market, but this is inferior to white sugar made by refineries.