Rum producers happy with early crop start, higher yield

Stakeholders in the local rum industry are happy that this year’s sugar harvest is gearing up for an early start.

Managing Director of the Barbados-based West Indies Rum Distillery (WIRD) Andrew Hassell said this augurs well for the spirits sector which uses 100 per cent cane product that includes raw cane juice, white or brown cane sugar, cane syrup, evaporated cane sugar and cane molasses.

“That’s exciting and they are saying that they are expecting a good crop, a 30 per cent increase. That’s great and West Indies Rum’s whole mission is about sustainability. The gentleman who owns the distillery takes no dividends, no profit share, no management fees, no salary, nothing. He is putting everything back into trying to help create a sustainable field-to-bottle model, where the value-added agricultural product is in a bottle,” Hassell said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.

“Rather than just selling sugar, you kind of sell sugar as a value-added branded product in a bottle. That’s really what we are working towards. Anything in a positive way that will help.. for us means win-win…something sustainable.

“We are constantly looking for win-wins. Win-wins for the farmer, win-wins for the BADMC [Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation], win-wins for the rum industry, and win-wins for the retailers,” stated Hassell who heads the company that produces 80 per cent of the island’s rum.

Last week Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said that the crop is due to start by mid-February, with some stakeholders predicting that the 2023 output would be sweeter than last year’s.

The island’s 12 private cane farmers are also confident they will improve their yields this year and produce about 30 per cent more cane than they did last year.

Weir said based on reports from management at the island’s lone operating sugar factory, Portvale, the equipment needed to repair machinery at the Blower’s, St James facility was on hand and there should be no delays.

Meanwhile, a 243-year-old Barbados-made rum created history with the auctioning of a bottle of the spirit at a “world record price of US$29 999”. This broke the record set in 2013 when a bottle was sold at US$9,500.

The New York-headquartered Rum Raiders, a one-stop shop online site for rum reviews and coverage, reported at the weekend that a bottle of the Harewood Barbados rum made in 1780, was sold to a collector in Switzerland.

Rum Raiders, which is also a rum ratings entity, said the locally-manufactured product considered the world’s oldest rum, was sold by Old Liquor Inc, a Miami-based company that specialises in the world’s largest selection of the rarest, oldest and most collectible spirits.

In 2011, 59 bottles were found hidden away in the basement of the Harewood House in Leeds, UK. It was determined that the rum was distilled in 1780, only four years after the United States declared itself a country. The rum was made in Barbados and in the early 19th century it was shipped to the United Kingdom and bottled by Oldfield’s of York. This was at the request of the first Earl of Harewood.

Commenting on the development, Hassell said that the record sale demonstrates that rum was now being considered a big brand spirit.

“People are starting to see rum as being premium which is the way we certainly see it at West Indies Rum, and that’s a good thing. More and more people are trying to collect rum. It’s a basic thing of supply and demand,” Hassell noted.

However, he explained that collectors were a small segment of the rum market.

“I think the reputation is more day-to-day, than just a one-off sale. Barbados’ and other Caribbean rum have that reputation, and we at West Indies Rum are trying to enhance that. This rum was made in 1780, we are not making rum like that anymore,” he pointed out. (EJ)