EDITORIAL - Hoping for a sweet sugar crop

NEWS that the harvesting of this country’s 2017 sugar crop will commence this morning is very significant for the industry and the country overall.

Today’s start comes against the background of the prevailing dry conditions which are ideal for harvesting sugar canes, and the ripening of the canes. In taking the plunge at this time, those managing the industry – the Barbados Sugar Industry Limited and the Barbados Agricultural Management Company – would want to maximise what appears to be the dry season at this time, given that there is still an element of uncertainty when it comes to rainfall and the sugar industry.

Harvesting of last year’s sugar crop started in March and that late start ran into problems with the bad weather. That had led in some instances to disruptions.

However, an early start to the harvesting season such as what will take place from today is usually done to ensure that the crop does not last as far down as the start of the rainy season. Once that happens, the equipment which loads canes on to the vehicles taking them to the factory tends to pick up extraneous matter. When this extraneous matter is then fed into the mills at the factory, it reduces the amount of canes that make a tonne of sugar, and this affects the income the industry earns.

This point was addressed last Friday by the BSIL Chairman, Patrick Bethell. He said following a workshop that the aim this year is to have a cleaner sugar crop. Speaking after a workshop held at Groves, St. George, Bethell noted that greater emphasis will be placed on the importance of sending clean, fresh canes to the factory at Portvale, St. James, which can serve to boost sugar yields as well as quality.

It is expected that output from this year’s crop will surpass that of last year, although when it is considered that we are talking about 7 000 tonnes and 12 000 tonne-crops, it demonstrates just how far the industry’s output has fallen off.

There were times when Barbados was producing upwards of 60 000 tonnes of sugar, the majority of which was sold to the European Union under contractural terms, resulting in foreign exchange inflows of more than $70 million from the sale of the sugar.

However, those days have long passed because of a combination of reasons – high production costs; cane fires; the reduced cost which Europe paid African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) producers for their sugar; and a decision by many farmers to get out of sugar because it had turned out to be uneconomical to remain.

Sugar still has a place in Barbados and the fact that the country has stuck with it is a vote of confidence in the crop. This is unlike some other regional producers like St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago which have opted out of sugar production. Barbados believes that it can still make something out of an industry which has served the country well, until it was overtaken by tourism and the problems that set it since then.

Let’s hope that this will be the start to the renewed thrust in the industry.