New sugar firms to begin operations on Monday under ‘different’ environment

By Shamar Blunt

The two new companies running the sugar industry, the Agricultural Business Company Ltd. (ABC), and Barbados Energy and Sugar Company Inc. (BESC), are due to begin operations on Monday, the parent company’s head confirmed on Thursday.

After months of work and negotiations, all is set for next week’s new start, President of the Barbados Sustainable Energy Co-operative Society Limited (Co-op Energy) Retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne, told listeners on Down to Brasstacks call-in programme. However, he did not indicate when the sugar harvest and grinding would begin.

“We will be restarting in a completely different work environment, planning environment and organisational environment,” he said.

“[We are] expecting that operations will recommence on Monday; we are actively pursuing all of the steps needed to do that… Something like 145 persons will be reporting to work on Monday. When we get into February, we will have our full complement at Portvale [Sugar Factory] and that will be up and running. In the case of the ABC operations, we also recommence on Monday with something like 50 or so workers; 18 in the workshop, 15 farm workers and six on staff. They [will] actually start on Monday to start getting our machinery in place and doing the initial steps. By the first week in February, we expect to be up to full complement.”

The new co-op is planning to invest more than $100 million to transform the ailing industry after the government divested the former state-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC).

Ambassador Clyde Mascoll, the government’s senior economic adviser who was integral to the work done over the past several years in reshaping the outlook of the sugar industry to make it a sustainable product going forward, said BAMC’s spending to keep the industry alive was simply not sustainable.

“The government spent as much as $30 million per year trying to make this happen, and therefore that was extremely burdensome over the years,” the economist said. “In fact, several hundred million dollars have been spent on the entity called BAMC. Reform of BAMC was premised on three things; how do we innovate in terms of the product, how do we enable profits, and how do we enable empowerment of people.”

He also revealed that the government has also taken care of BAMC’s debts, amounting to just over $24 million.

Ambassador Mascoll emphasised that while some critics of the move may believe that investing in the growing renewable energy sector with the new company is the wrong decision, the revamped Portvale mill’s operations will prioritise sugar and molasses production over bagasse.

“What is being done is that we are first making Portvale viable as a sugar and molasses factory, and then there will be the add-on of the renewable energy in the future, because that requires investment,” he explained. “As you invest in the renewable energy, the efficiency by which you produce sugar and molasses will also improve to the extent that it becomes a major benefit to the entity.”

He also stated that the quality of sugar cane may become an emphasis in the future when buying from individual plantations.

Ambassador Mascoll said: “The thing that we have to look at going forward, is whether we will continue to pay for cane only on the basis of tonnage, or whether we should consider introducing the quality of cane into the arena. There are three types or ways you can plant cane. You can do what we call new cane or CPC, and that is planted for 18 months; you can do what we call ratoon, and that is planted for a year; or there is something called force back, that can be a shortened life. The sucrose content in the cane can vary across the three types.”

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb