Sugar factory dispute sparks fears for food security

The Democratic Labour Party’s shadow minister of agriculture, Amoy Gilding-Bourne, is calling for urgent intervention into the Portvale sugar factory workers’ dispute.

Gilding-Bourne appealed to the minister of agriculture and the chief labour officer to step in before the situation further affects the crop.

 

Speaking to Barbados TODAY on Sunday following a press conference to announce the party’s shadow ministry, she said the issue not only affects the sugar harvest but also crop rotation.

 

“The longer the canes stay in the ground, the lower the sucrose content. But the crop rotation is going to be delayed as well, so we can invariably see that we’re going to have at least, well, maybe a lack of yams or sweet potatoes coming up in the weeks to come.”

 

On March 18, Portvale Sugar Factory workers downed tools and staged strike action over the unwillingness of management to accept their chosen union representation, as well as allegations of poor working conditions.

 

“So I’m asking for the new minister of agriculture and the labour officers to come in and intervene in this matter. The workers at Portvale Sugar Factory have been asking for this intervention for a long time,” appealed Gilding-Bourne.

 

“There are contractual issues that we have talked about, their conditions with the bathrooms. They need some support, and it’s affecting the entire agricultural industry — the sugar industry.”

 

She described the situation as the industry being “held for ransom”.

 

Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, James Paul, stressed the critical importance of the sugar industry to the survival of agriculture.

He said: “It is part of the capacity that, for instance, helps us to minimise current input costs. We don’t recognise that when you take out that type of capacity, it really reduces your buying power, and your unit cost of production will actually go up.”

 

He underscored the seriousness and national importance of the situation.

 

“We cannot at all try to trivialise this matter. It’s something that must be given great importance.”

 

Paul explained that shortages of by-products like molasses are increasing livestock feed costs.

 

“The other thing is that, in terms of other crops, and for instance when we also talk about our rum industry at the same time — molasses — we don’t understand that even in terms of other aspects of agriculture, the sugar industry plays an important role.”

 

“For instance, right now the cost of molasses for farmers to feed their livestock has actually gone up. But this is, of course, because you don’t have that type of quantity being produced as it was before, and we need to get back there.”

 

He noted that some of sugar’s by-products are inputs for other aspects of agricultural production.

 

“A lot of the bedding that is utilised in poultry houses is bagasse. So that in itself is something we should encourage, because again we talk about the whole question of the circular economy. The concept of the circular economy is that you use outputs from one sector of business as inputs into another sector, and of course, again, the sugar industry is strategically positioned as far as that is concerned, so we need to promote it.”

 

The DLP spokesperson on agriculture also linked the issue to the national goal of reducing food imports and achieving food security.

 

Gilding-Bourne said: “We’ve heard the current administration tout food security, and I have said it many times, and I’m going to say it again: if we do not produce, we will perish. And it is time that we need to really take a focus and look at what we have been doing, and we cannot continue to do the same thing and expect different results.”

lourainnegraham@barbadostoday.bb