As the Government gears up to exit the sugarcane industry and hand it over to the private sector, one of Barbados’ iconic rum producers has suggested the country may have already “missed the boat” on some value-added items from the industry.
Sir David Seale, owner of the Foursquare Rum Distillery in St Philip, said he believed Barbados and other regional sugarcane-producing economies should have gone the route of producing packaged sugar several years ago.
“I think Barbados and the Caribbean missed the boat. Instead of going bulk sugar, which is selling sugar at the lowest value, you should have gone to packaging and had a high-class packaging industry going with sugar,” he contended in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
He expressed little optimism about a rebirth of the sector, saying Barbados simply cannot compete when it comes to labour costs, one of the major overheads.
“If you started off the cheapest, the people that use a lot of sugar go for the cheapest market. Really and truly, we have a situation where [it] is difficult for the sugar industry to ever recover, because there again our wages have gone up, and nothing wrong with that but basically we don’t have any . . . cheap labour,” Sir David indicated.
Government is seeking to transition the sugarcane industry to focus more on the production of molasses for the rum industry and to use facilities to generate renewable energy and produce biomass and use the by-products from the factory as fertiliser.
The Mia Mottley administration is hoping this will attract private investment.
Asked if he had any interest in getting involved in the new plan for the sugar industry, Sir David replied, “no, there is no interest.”
Foursquare Rum Distillery currently grows its own sugarcane on more than 30 acres of land.
During the wide-ranging interview, the long-time sugarcane farmer and rum producer also dismissed any idea of him getting involved in the burgeoning medical marijuana industry.
“If the Government does it and it is legal, it is legal, but don’t come around me. I am not going to plant any. No, Sir!” he declared.
Sir David spoke of the growth in rum exports from his operations, saying that it was constantly “rising”, although he was unable to provide figures at the time.
Recalling that Falernum, one of the rum products produced by Foursquare, was once known as “the poor man’s liquor” in Barbados and used mainly at Christmas, Sir David said the product has been rapidly gaining popularity on the international scene.
“The world is now finding out that you can mix a nice cocktail with Falernum. [Exports] keep going up all the time, yes,” he said.
The businessman explained that when Foursquare started exporting the product a few years ago, the shipments were just about half of a 20-foot container. However, he said, that had increased steadily over the years.
“Now we are only sending in 40-foot [containers],” he said, explaining that this was the case for at least one buyer of only Falernum while others would include other rums along with the Falernum.
Boasting of having perhaps the largest amount of aged rum on the island, Foursquare has four ageing bonds which hold between 15 000 and 20 000 barrels of rum. Two more bonds are being built. (MM)
