WELL-known agriculturalist Keith Laurie is painting a gloomy picture of the sugar industry, citing high production costs as its death knell.
Laurie, known for his activist role in promoting the virtues of Black Belly Sheep, told the Daily Nation that the sugar industry was “shrinking”.
He spoke of a subcommittee of the Barbados Society of Technologists in Agriculture that was looking into the sugar industry and also of the work of Landell and Mills Consulting Company, which was examining the “field side of the BAMC [Barbados Agricultural Management Company Ltd]”.
“Since they have come, they have put out some interim reports. One of the real shockers was that it costs BAMC $138 to produce a tonne of cane and the non-BAMC farmers are only being paid $68 dollars . . . . The Government is subsidising the sugar industry to the tune of $50 million a year.”
He added that Barbados was shipping sugar to Europe and losing $1 200 for every tonne sent out.
“I believe they look on it as a means of foreign exchange – but is it worth spending $100 to get $50 foreign exchange?” Laurie asked.
He said unless Barbados brought the cost of producing a tonne of cane below $70 there would also be problems and the industry would always require a subsidy.
Laurie has therefore challenged the ministry to get up and find other things to do with the land, contending that it would be more economically beneficial than letting only bush grow.
“I think there will be continued demand for land for housing but on all the estates there is rab land once the [Chief Town Planner] can give permission . . . . Someone suggested putting it in food. You know 5 000 acres in food would oversupply the entire Barbados; probably even less. That is not going to be an easy answer.
“All the independent estates would continue to plant food because they are making more money in food than in cane – the ones that are getting only $68 to $70 a tonne. The food crops are what are keeping them alive.”
