Sugar output ‘set to fall’ due to poor rainfall – growers’ rep

The head of the private sugar growers organisation warned on Friday to expect a decrease in sugar production next year, with dry weather over the summer blamed for the projected decline.

 

The development has prompted the Chairman of Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL), Mark Sealy, to suggest urgent changes to crop timing and farm efficiency to cushion the impact.

 

Sealy told Barbados TODAY: “Everybody is working very hard to put on a good crop for 2026. Obviously, we have had some poor weather in the normally wet months of June, July, August, September.”

 

“We started to get a bit of rain now, which will help with the planting season, but I expect that we will probably see some reduced volumes, simply because of those four very dry and hot months. Obviously, it’s going to affect the ratoon cane — the grow back. It’s like grass. If you don’t get rain, you don’t have to cut your grass quite as much. It just doesn’t grow. So, we have suffered from that this year for sure.”

 

“There will be a reduction in the ratoon canes because I don’t think we can catch back up in November and December. I am sure you will remember, it was very dry in June, July, August, September. It [the decrease in ratoon canes] will trickle down to a reduction in sugar output, because, if your cane stalk is smaller, there would be a reduction in the cane stalks you can grind, and a reduction in the amount of sugar and molasses.”

 

This year, his private farmers delivered 65 830 tonnes of cane to the sole mill, Portvale Sugar Factory at Blowers, St Thomas.

 

But the BSIL leader said that the overall total was 96 355 tonnes, while adding he was not in a position to forecast next year’s production.

 

Sealy, who has been consistently advocating for an early start to the crop — around February 15 — highlighted its importance again, emphasising that the factory has to have a chance to settle down.

 

In June, he told Barbados TODAY: “We all know it’s no fault of the factory. A factory has to have some time to settle down; and if you start at the end of February, it takes two weeks to settle down . . . and even though we had 66 days of deliveries, which is approximately 11 weeks of deliveries, which is reasonable.”

 

“I think that is what the factory projected, the challenge is when you start to get into the end. You know we had some rain in May and then it went a little bit into June. At the end of May we had some rain, and that causes problems, because sometimes you have to stop for rain, and then there is the whole issue of compaction in the fields.”

 

He had also complained that the combination of a wet field and compaction of the ground affects future crops.

 

Sealy continued: “We always like to start around February 15. That would give a little time for the factory to iron out the kinks. We need to get far more efficient in getting the cane in more quickly, and that means cutting earlier, and making sure that all of our bins are all licensed, because we own those now. . . and making sure that the truckers are there early and hopefully we can discuss that with the factory to see if they can start receiving canes a bit earlier.”

 

He acknowledged that it costs the factory money to run more weeks than it wants to and that farmers need to assist in this regard.

 

Co-op Energy assumed control of the sugar industry sectors formerly managed by the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) on December 19, 2023. The transition, including the establishment of Agricultural Business Company (ABC) Ltd and Barbados Energy and Sugar Company (BESCO) Ltd, was completed on March 24, 2024, with actual sugar operations under their control beginning on January 15, 2024.

 

Co-op Energy holds a 55 per cent equity stake in both ABC Ltd and BESCO Ltd, which oversee the sugar industry’s farmland and Portvale sugar factory, respectively.

 

From the inception of Co-op Energy, BSIL, comprising the rump of owners who dominated the sugar industry from its origins in the 1600s, has ruled out any possibility that it should join the cooperative or invest in its firms.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb