Almost every sugar offer circulating in the international market cites one of two acronyms: VHP or ICUMSA 45. They are not versions of the same product in different qualities. They are different products, for different buyers, with their own logistics and price benchmarks.
VHP — Very High Polarisation — is raw sugar. Polarisation measures sucrose content, and in VHP it is high enough for the sugar to go straight to refining at destination. It is Brazil's main sugar export, shipped in bulk on bulk carriers and referenced to ICE's Sugar No. 11 contract in New York. Whoever buys VHP is, almost always, a refinery.
ICUMSA 45 is refined white sugar. The ICUMSA scale measures colour: the lower the number, the whiter the sugar, and 45 is the reference specification for refined white sugar in international trade. It ships in bags, big bags or containers, and its price benchmark is White Sugar No. 5 in London. The buyers are food and beverage manufacturers, distributors and importers supplying retail.
The difference matters because it changes everything that follows: the vessel, the port, the buyer, the price and the type of inspection. An offer that mixes the two — VHP “with ICUMSA 45”, for example — already says something about who wrote it.
That is also why ICUMSA 45 calls for extra care. It is the product most often cited in the unbacked offers that travel through chains of intermediaries: very large monthly volumes, contracts running for many months, a price below the benchmark and a “procedure” that asks for the buyer's documents and guarantees before any proof of product. None of this, on its own, proves bad faith. Taken together, it is a well-known pattern.
A stated interest in sugar that gives the type, the specification, the volume, the port and the delivery basis can be reviewed. That is where a conversation between the parties starts to be worth each side's time.