THE 2017 SUGAR HARVEST officially got under way yesterday, but the early part of the day was not busy for the sole sugar factory, Portvale.
When a DAILY NATION team visited the Blowers, St James factory, manager Raphael O’Neal said they expected to be grinding soon but no canes had started to arrive as yet.
“This is the first week; everyone is now falling into place,” he said.
O’Neal said he expected the canes to start arriving after lunchtime, but noted that the container trucks [that carried the long blue bins] which belonged to the Barbados Agricultural Management Company, were still at the weighing and transfer stations at Carrington’s, St Philip and Bulkeley, St George, waiting for canes to be transported to Portvale.
Chairman of the Barbados Sugar Industry Limited, Patrick Bethell, said several farmers had started to harvest but it was a matter of having the trailers ready to transport the cane. He said plantations at Fisherpond, St Thomas, as well as Searles, Christ Church, had already started harvesting but he was unsure of the status of the other farmers.
“Some have cut, some are ready to cut; they are just waiting for transportation,” he added.
Bethell said from discussions he had with some farmers, they were also awaiting inspection of the trailers by the Ministry of Transport and Works before they could go on the road.
“Other than that, people are ready to go. I think that by tomorrow [today] we will be in much better gear to go.” (LK)
