THINGS THAT MATTER

Portvale and the Barbados sugar story – Part 2

 

Last week, blown away by my visit to Portvale Factory, a mammoth compared to the factories I knew as a youth (Colleton, Guinea, Kendal, Moncrieffe and Pool in St. John) I described it as a modern factory. I was impressed by the size, the information I was given about all the improvements in local technology and quality control, and the enthusiasm and apparent efficiency of the staff. However, I’m told that in fact a “modern” sugar factory, like some of those in Brazil, is largely automated, which we’re not!

 

Nonetheless, let’s pick up the story where we left it last Sunday – the windfall produced by World War 1 and the devastation of the European sugar beet industry, aided by good weather, pushed output to 65 000 tons of sugar. However, this boom didn’t last – another collapse followed, with drought and the great depression. The roller coaster of good fortune and misfortunes in sugar continued. 

 

Fortunately, the work of the Cane Breeding station, led first by J. R. Bovell and Dr. Harrison and later Sir John Saint, produced far better varieties of cane, and technological advantages pushed sugar output steadily upward. By 1939, there were only 37 working mills left and 35 factories. The last mills to grind (1946) were Colleton in St. Peter, and Morgan Lewis, which was given to the newly formed National Trust by Mr. Egbert Bannister in 1961. New cane varieties and better technology eventually resulted in production of an average of 170 000 tons of sugar per year in the late 1950s. Nonetheless, as we know the improvements which began in the 1930s were not transmitted to the workers, and frustration with desperately low wages and poor living conditions led to the riots of 1937. 

 

Improvements in the 1950s were aided by the British sugar price and quota agreement. Technological improvements continued, with continuing centralisation of factories. As a boy growing up in St. John, I was familiar with Colleton, Guinea, Kendal, Pool and Lemon Arbour, renamed Uplands, while Wakefield had recently stopped working and underwent adaptive re-use as Caribbean Confectionery or “the sweetie factory” – to the delight of the neighbouring children. But by 1971 there were only ten factories in operation, and the period 1975 to 1993 has been described as the period “when everything went wrong”. 

 

The fact is that whenever sugar was profitable, investments were made to improve the industry. Yet, according to the position paper “A SWOT of Sugar”, “In 1971, the Government approved legislation titled the Sugar Industry Act (1971) which gave it the power to surcharge/tax/huff all windfall profits in the industry and to legislate wage levels for the industry, both of which it subsequently did. The tax of windfall profits in 1974 and 1981 amounted to more than $50 million (at a time when $1.00 could buy more than ten times what it could buy today) and wage levels were increased by more than 100 per cent in ten years. At the same time, the Government’s agricultural policy promoted crop diversification from sugar cane and the Ministry of Agriculture withdrew its support for the sugar industry. Without the windfall profits, which had previously kept the industry alive, coupled with the increasingly high operating costs, all private investment in the industry dried up and by 1990, 26 of the sugar plantations were heavily indebted to the Barbados National Bank.”

The subsequent 25 years has seen a dramatic reduction in the acreage in sugar production, and it is now estimated to be less than 20 000 acres, with only about 15 000 being reaped, from a traditional 70 000 acres. Some 30 000 has reportedly gone to housing and another uncertain acreage to so-called small farm plots of four acres, but really more housing, in places like Rowans, Sandford and Frere Pilgrim. And the subdivision continues apace, as we see between St. David’s Church and Kent.

 

Meanwhile sugar production has plummeted from nearly 200 000 tons per year, to 7 000 tons! Repeat – from nearly 200 000 tons to 7 000 tons per year! 

 

And the only factory now working is Portvale, built in 1981/82 at Blowers. The name was derived from Porters – Vaucluse – Lower Estate – the three major factories that had just closed! It was an assemblage of the Antigua Sugar Factory mills, an evaporator from Antiguan and Barbadian units and some new vacuum pans. Nonetheless, it’s an impressive operation, from checking the quality of each load of canes to the final process of bagging for local consumption, in 1, 2 and 3 kg bags, and 25 kg bags for export. What impressed me most was the three quality control labs along the way, and the knowledge and passion of every staff member I met. The obvious dedication of the entire team was really inspiring.

 

However, what has amazed me is the entire business of pricing. We have continued to practically give our wonderful sugar away, at a bulk price of US$300 per ton, compared to US$1 000 per ton for packaged sugar. Even in our supermarkets, sugar is practically a gift, with 3 kg of Plantation Reserve selling for BDS$12.59, 2kg for $8.29 and 1kg for $ 5.19 – little more than a “sweet drink”! And compare the going price of $21.99 for a kg of brightly coloured sweet peppers!

 

The bottom line seems to me to be that the “bottom line” has not been properly addressed by the present industry management; and the current controversial proposals for Andrews, and the conversion of Barbados into a forest of river tamarind, appear to be as unrealistic and uneconomic as the Cahill proposal, now at last publicly declared a no-go. The sugar gurus are quite clear that Portvale Factory is fully capable of producing all the sugar product that Barbados is capable of for the foreseeable future, with modest capital infusion, compared to the huge uncertainties of the half billion dollar proposals for Andrews. It is perhaps the only realistic option to save the industry from imminent demise, with the disastrous job losses, social and economic impact threatened.

 

Bouquet: To Esther Phillips and her team for the inspiring Bim Literary Festival just concluded. How wonderful it would be if we could create a truly functionally literate society!

(Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website: profhenryfraser.com)

 

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