US consumers snap up Bajan sugar

Less than a month after the first shipment of locally produced brown sugar was exported to the United States, supermarket shelves there are already empty, Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) officials reported.
On Monday, as machine operators filled two containers of direct-consumption sugar at the BAMC’s headquarters in Warrens, St Michael, business development manager Sherwin Greenidge told the media that the product was in great demand and retailers “are eager to receive the second shipment that will go off today”.
Two containers, each with 20 tonnes of two-pound packages of sugar, were shipped. However, that amount will be increased to 60 tonnes – three containers with 20 tonnes – monthly.
Through Barbados’ Consul General office in Miami, the BAMC reached out to Florida-based Blue Roof Brands and struck a deal that saw the first shipment going off on February 10.
The exported sugar is packaged under the label DelSur. The agreement is for Barbados to produce 2 500 tonnes of packaged sugar annually.
Last month, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said Barbados would receive more earnings for exporting direct-consumption sugar as it had more added value. He noted that previously, the island sold bulk sugar for about $900 per tonne; now, the packaged sugar is being sold at $1 500 to $1 700 per tonne.
Weir also said it was expected that Barbados would earn $4.2 million in revenue from exporting sugar to the US during this year’s harvest.
Meanwhile, Greenidge said the BAMC is expanding its reach regionally and, thus far, a client in Trinidad had requested about 900 tonnes of packaged sugar from the 2023 harvest.
Chief executive officer of the BAMC Orlanda Atherley pointed out that globally, the “sugar market is getting fairly tight and the price of sugar is going up”.
“The demand is obviously there because of the quality of sugar we produce,” he said.
Atherley said Barbados was competing against regional sugar producers like Belize and Guyana and even though those countries may offer sugar at a cheaper price, there seemed to be a “focus on quality and that is what we deliver at Portvale Sugar Factory”.
The CEO added that Barbados had not been importing sugar for a long time, noting that all the sugar on the supermarket shelves here was locally produced although packaged under various brands such as Plantation Reserve, Mum’s, Simply Brown and Atlantic Fresh.
(SZB)