Rainfall helping sugar industry

THE PERSISTENT rainfall which Barbados has been experiencing in the latter half of this year is proving to be beneficial to the local sugar industry.

Chairman of the Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL), Marl Sealy has confirmed this to Business Monday during a brief interview on the preparation for the crop next year as well as the planting of canes for the 2022 sugar crop.

The industry is gradually being resuscitated and Sealy said that they in the sugar sector are “very happy with the rains”.

The rainfall has been evenly distributed which industry analysts have said is very useful for the growing of canes. It was observed recently that many cane fields are showing both strong growth of canes as well as their flowering (arrows).

The BSIL official said there have been no hiccups to the planting of canes which usually takes place around this time of the year for the crop 16 months later.

He could not say exactly when harvesting of the 2021 crop will commence although a date sometime in February is being looked at. However, Sealy noted that the date will depend on the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) and the decision will be driven by the readiness of Portvale, the lone sugar factory in operation. The BAMC manages the government owned estates while the privately owned ones fall under the ambit of the BSIL.

The industry has benefited from Government financial support and earlier this year sugar output was slightly higher than that of last year. The Central Bank of Barbados has said that  a prompt start to the sugar  season earlier this year enabled increased harvesting of canes. However, it said that increased production of higher quality molasses from the rum industry lowered sugar output.

More than half the sugar produced this year was retained for domestic production. (JB)