‘Too much’ imported sugar

Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir says too much sugar is being imported, a situation which he says is being monitored by his ministry.

“I would say that we have more imported sugar than we need to. We don’t need it for the supermarket shelves and certainly we don’t need it for manufacturing; we don’t need it for any reason other than people trying to beat (the) price,” Weir said yesterday after touring Mount Gay Estates in St Lucy where the Mount Gay Distillery released the third and fourth editions of its Single Estate series of rums.

Insisting that local sugar and the sugar farmers must be protected, the Agriculture Minister disclosed Government was also trying to get the private sector to use more Barbados sugar, rather than imported sugar.

“The real challenge is to get the private sector to invest in purchasing Barbados’ sugar, and how do we address sugar imported into Barbados, and how it competes with local production,” he said.

“I know that we may not be able to produce all the sugar that is used in the value chain process but I strongly believe that the sugar we produce here should first be utilised rather than seek to find ways to compete with local sugar. When I say find ways, I mean that there are a number of things that people may seek to do to get sugar into Barbados and we are currently monitoring that situation. We will manage it and make sure that local sugar is utilised,” Weir added.

After hearing Mount Gay’s strategy for producing the sugar cane from which its world-famous rum is made, the minister described it as a perfect synergy for what the Ministry of Agriculture was hoping to achieve, “in terms of how we can first of

all use the enfranchisement model in the sugar industry to make sure that ownership is spread and that the actors involved are invested more to make sure that we can build out our rum industry, increase our molasses production and make sure that we can create blends that are unique and give us an opportunity to earn foreign exchange.

“That has always been the vision, not just to produce sugar cane in bulk but also to produce sugar and export, to have it refined and sent back to us at a premium,” he added.

Weir said while he was open to regional trade and easy movement of goods throughout the region, he was also mindful of Barbados’ responsibility to keep the island’s sugar cane farmers and the sugar industry going. (GC)