The production of high quality brown sugar largely depends on the quality of sugarcane. Breeding for sugarcane varieties specifically used for producing brown sugar might be benefited from the sugarcane germplasm resources with rich nutrients. This study was conducted based on 16 representative sugarcane germplasm varieties, which were cultivated widely in China, or often used for the brown sugar production industries at present or in the past. By quantifying the nutrition and quality related traits such as protein, total free amino acid, total polyphenol, sucrose, reducing sugar, ash content, chloride, and colloid content of sugarcane juice, we applied the factor analysis, cluster analysis and grey multidimensional degree comprehensive analysis to evaluate and screen the sugarcane germplasm resources suitable for the brown sugar production. The results showed significant differences in the nutrition and quality indexes in different sugarcane germplasms. Three varieties including Triton, Mintang 69-421 and ROC22, which were detected with the highest contents on protein and amino acids, but a moderate ash content, were qualified for the brown sugar production industry. Considering the demand for the brown sugar production and the nutrient content, five varieties including Triton, Mintang 69-421, Yunzhe 05-51, ROC22 and Chuantang 61-408, have been proposed as the elite germplasm resources in sugarcane breeding.