Barbados Sugar Industries Limited (BSIL) farmers are hoping another investor will step forward, following the collapse of the government’s divestment deal with the Barbados Sustainable Energy Co-operative Society Limited (Co-op Energy).
Chairman of BSIL Mark Sealy told Barbados TODAY that farmers had already invested significantly in equipment, land, and sugarcane.
“You need quite a few millions to upgrade the factory and that sort of thing. As I understand it, that was the idea—that Co-op Energy was going to bring in all that capital. And it seems that this is broken down. I won’t be commenting on why that was, because I don’t really have the facts,” he said. “But the farmers, we’re hoping that somebody else will invest.”
BSIL, the 300-year-old industry’s last remaining grouping of original owners, emerged as the main grouping of private farmers after the government announced it had divested much of its stake in the sugar industry to cooperative ownership.
Sealy told Barbados TODAY they simply could not take on the additional burden of capitalising the sole remaining sugar factory and government-run agricultural land.
“We’ve made it quite clear from the beginning that farmers do not have that kind of money; farmers don’t have that kind of money,” he said.
“There seems to be some sort of rumour or a feeling out there that farmers in Barbados have loads of cash put down that they can invest in things. But [there] is nothing further from the truth. The farmers have very little money. There’s a reason why we ask for our payments on time: because our cash flow – farmers’ cash flow – is depleted significantly.”
On Monday, Barbados TODAY revealed that the government had moved to terminate the March 2023 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Co-op Energy, a deal which was to have transferred the Barbados Agricultural Management Company’s (BAMC) sugar portfolio into two co-operative-run entities — ABC Ltd, responsible for 4 500 acres of farmland, and BESCO Ltd, operator of Portvale factory.
The BSIL chairman underscored that sugar remained vital to the island’s economy, tourism product, and food security: “I think the sugar industry is very important for Barbados in terms of molasses for high-end rums, in terms of tourism and keeping the island clean and the aesthetics of the island. So there are numerous things. It’s very important that we have the sugar industry.”
Rejecting suggestions that the collapse of the Co-op Energy deal leaves the industry without direction, Sealy said operations had continued smoothly without the co-operative’s input over the past years.
“Co-op Energy has never been involved. When I say involved, I mean there were deliberations as I understand it, but this last crop and the crop before ran, and it ran quite smoothly, and that’s congratulations to the people who are running BESCO and so on. But it ran quite smoothly, and it ran smoothly without Co-op Energy. So I don’t see a reason why it can’t run,” he said.
The BSIL head was adamant that the sugar industry should not be abandoned: “My personal opinion is that Barbados can’t do without the sugar industry. I don’t think Barbados can do with the island in bush, and that’s what it would be if the sugar industry shut down.” (SZB)
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