Govt ‘to hand sugarcane industry back to private ownership’

Labourers in the struggling sugarcane business will soon be given the opportunity to own a stake in a new company as Government moves one step closer to privatizing the industry.

This disclosure has come from Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir as he hinted at Government’s further withdrawal from the once vibrant industry, which is currently being subsidized to the tune of more than $10 million annually.

Weir, who was participating in the Estimates debate in Parliament on Tuesday, also revealed that the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company Ltd. (BAMC) would be forming a partnership with a private entity to produce value-added products from sugarcane and cane grass.

“We are now changing the sugar industry to one of Barbadian ownership,” he declared.

“When I say Barbadian ownership I don’t mean a government burdened and using taxpayers’ money to prop up an industry. I am talking about an integrated process where there are labourers who will have an opportunity to purchase shares in a new company that is being created and where the farmers themselves will have to take ownership in it as well, and then the government will take a small ownership in it,” he explained.

In September 2018 Weir first announced that Government was considering the merger of the BADMC and the BSIL as it sought to privatize the sugarcane industry and give Barbadians an opportunity to have shares in the new company.

Weir did not say what percentage Government’s involvement was likely to be or how much its contribution to the sector was likely to be. He also did not say how soon this new entity would be set up.

However, pointing to a meeting held yesterday with officials of the BAMC, the Barbados Sugar Industries Limited (BSIL) and other stakeholders, Weir said a partnership would be formed with a Barbados registered company, Grow Energy, to create more value-added products.

“They want to get into the space to produce syrup and biomass as well to be part of the renewable energy transformation that is coming to Barbados. We are at the point of creating space at Bulkeley for Grow Energy and the BAMC to enter into an arrangement where the two can work together and create synergies with cane grass and sugarcane so that you have two rotations and we are looking for consistency in supply so that you can do energy going the full value chain – meaning from cane to molasses or syrup, to sugar, to renewable energy to fertilizers,” Weir explained.

Describing yesterday’s meeting as “extremely cordial” the agriculture minister said he was happy that progress was being made to come up with a business plan that would make it possible for the private sector to have greater participation in the sugarcane industry.

“So we are going to have renewable energy, we are going to have sugar, we are going to have molasses and possibly syrup down the road,” he said.

Further outlining some of the achievements of his ministry over the past year to two years, Weir said Barbados has been able to stop exporting bulk sugar and was now exporting a packaged product for direct consumption.

He pointed out that prior to the change the island was exporting at a loss of sometimes “up to 50 per cent”, adding that the change was not yet at “the point of profitability”.

Weir also reported that work was ongoing to adjust the water rate for farmers. He said the Cabinet paper has already been prepared and it should be discussed and approved soon.

“What we are hoping to do is give the farmers a better deal with water,” said Weir, who announced that Barbados has been selected by the Organisation of American States (OAS to participate in an upcoming food security presentation.

He also reported that monies outstanding to the private sugarcane farmers over the past two years have been paid, and that Government was now up-to-date on its payments.

“We have paid up all of the arrears to the farmers and their current payments are on track. Seven million dollars in supplementary was allocated for the start of this sugar harvest so that the farmers can start and we wouldn’t have down time with people complaining and possible strikes too,” said Weir. (MM)