96 000 tonnes of sugar reaped amid uncertainty over industry control

Amid lingering uncertainty over the ownership and control of Barbados’ sugar industry, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir has announced a sweet outcome for the 2025 sugar cane harvest.

He disclosed that this year’s crop yielded 96 000 tonnes of cane, producing 3.8 million kilogrammes of sugar and 6.8 million kilogrammes of molasses.

“This, of course, speaks to the fact that we have remained consistent in delivering sugar so that we can keep things sweet whilst we export the rum we produce,” he said during a thanksgiving service on Sunday at the Oldbury Seventh-day Adventist Church Complex as part of We Gatherin’ celebrations. 

The report comes amid continued uncertainty about who controls the near four-centuries-old sugar industry.

While the agriculture minister maintained that the government is still in charge of the industry, Co-op Energy—the Barbados Sustainable Energy Co-operative Society Limited—insisted that the State relinquished oversight as part of a planned transition to a worker-owned model.

This year’s harvest was carried out under the same ambiguity as 2024. In March, Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne, head of Co-op Energy, told Barbados TODAY that no formal handover from the Barbados Agricultural Management Corporation (BAMC) had occurred.

“We’ve asked them and written to them. They haven’t even responded yet. And I don’t have any army that can go in and take it over,” he said.

He described the situation as “in abeyance”.

In a general members’ update issued on January 8, Co-op Energy stated: “The excellent progress that was initially made in the transfer of BAMC control… stalled when the government failed to produce independently verified valuations of the assets and liabilities to be transferred.”

But Weir countered that Co-op Energy has not yet met its side of the bargain. He disclosed that the group was required to invest approximately $16 million, beginning with an upfront payment of $4 million, none of which has materialised.

Despite the ownership tug-of-war, farmers under the banner of the Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL) – which never participated in the divesting of the sugar industry – were able to reap the benefits of a modest pay increase this year. Under a revised payment agreement, growers received $210 per tonne of cane, up from the long-standing rate of $190. (SZB)