If anything, it’s inferior. It takes better to sandy, coastal climates better.
It does not take better to sandy, coastal, climates. While it is capable of growing there and does have a high yield there, it is by no means take better to those climates that it would to fertile, tropical climates.
Even if it did, the Land of Fire has a coast, so we definitely have sandy, coastal, climate.
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Sugarcane is grown in the world from latitude 36.7° N and 31.0° S, from sea level to 1000m of altitude or little more. It is considered as essentially a tropical plant. It is a long duration crop and thus it encounters all the seasons' viz., rainy, winter and summer during its life cycle.
Principal climatic components that control cane growth, yield and quality are
temperature,
light and
moisture availability. The plant
thrives best in tropical hot sunny areas. The "ideal" climate for production of maximum sugar from sugarcane is characterized as:
- A long, warm growing season with a high incidence of solar radiation and adequate moisture (rainfall) - the plant uses from 148 to 300g of water to produce 1.0g of dry substance.
- A fairly dry, sunny and cool, but frost-free season for ripening and harvesting - moisture percentage drops steadily throughout the life of the sugarcane plant, from 83% in very young cane to 71% in mature cane, meanwhile, sucrose grows from less than 10 to more than 45% of the dry weight.
- Freedom from typhoons and hurricanes
- Rainfall: A total rainfall between 1100 and 1500 mm is adequate provided the distribution is right, abundant in the months of vegetative growth followed by a dry period for ripening. During the active growth period, rainfall encourages rapid cane growth, cane elongation, and internode formation. But during ripening period high rainfall is not desirable because it leads to poor juice quality, encourages vegetative growth, formation of water shoots and increase in the tissue moisture.
- Temperature: Growth is closely related to temperature. Optimum temperature for sprouting (germination) of stem cuttings is 32° to 38°c. It slows down below 25°, reaches plateau between 30°-34°, is reduced above 35° and practically stops when the temperature is above 38°. Temperatures above 38° reduce the rate of photosynthesis and increase respiration. For ripening, however, relatively low temperatures in the range of 12° to 14° are desirable, since this has a noticeable influence on the reduction of vegetative growth rate and enrichment of sucrose in the cane.
- Relative humidity: High humidity (80-85%) favours rapid cane elongation during grand growth period. A moderate value of 45-65% coupled with limited water supply is favourable during the ripening phase.
- Sunlight: Sugarcane is a sun-loving plant. It grows well in areas receiving solar energy from 18 - 36 MJ/m2. Being a C4 plant, sugarcane is capable of high photosynthetic rates and the process shows a high saturation range with regards to light. Tillering is affected by intensity and duration of sunshine. High light intensity and long duration promote tillering while cloudy and short days affect it adversely. Stalk growth increases when daylight is within the range of 10 - 14 hours. Increase in leaf area index is rapid during 3rd to 5th month, coinciding the formative phase of the crop and attained its peak values during early grand growth phase (Ramanujam and Venkataramana, 1999).
Source:
http://www.sugarcanecrops.com/climate/ (Sugarcane)
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While I wouldn't say the Mist is incapable of achieving these conditions, it doesn't match up to the Land of Fire in terms of Climate to produce Sugar crops. It can produce some other Sugar crop such as that marshy one you were talking about, but even then I don't see the Mist producing better quality sugar.
