2024 Sugar Harvest Season Officially Begins with Cooperative-Owned Firms Taking the Lead

By Sheria Brathwaite

The bell has finally been rung to start the 2024 sugar harvest season.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne, chairman of the two new cooperative-owned firms that took over the government’s stake in the industry, announced in a statement on Thursday that the harvest will get underway on Monday. The first delivery of canes is scheduled to be received at the island’s sole sugar mill, Portvale, in the next two days.

Tests have revealed that the sugar canes are now prime for reaping, said Lt Col Browne, paving the way for the historic start as for the first time, the workers who reap and grind the canes to make sugar will be fully owning the process.

“Thanks to the outstanding efforts of managers and staff . . . we now feel much more comfortable going into a hectic 2024 sugar crop. All of the required tests and certifications are now successfully completed, and Portvale will be ready to commence operations on [Monday]. Deliveries of sugar cane can then commence from Wednesday,” the statement read.

“This timing coincides with our most recent sucrose content test results, which we have been monitoring. Those results indicate that the sugar crop is now at an ideal state of readiness.”

Noting that the new owners had inherited an impressive but old and unfortunately poorly capitalised factory, Browne noted that it suffered a major breakdown during the 2022 crop, seriously disrupting operations, and management “has taken special care this year to take all possible steps to reduce such a re-occurrence. This required a major overhaul of one of the critical boiler units . . . . This overhaul has been successfully completed.”

Browne declared that this harvest would be a historic one in that key roles in the industry are now under the control of a cooperative body whose membership is open to all and sundry. Additionally, for the first time ever, workers in the sugar industry will own a 20 per cent stake in the operations of the two key companies.

The Agricultural Business Company Ltd. (ABC), based at Bulkeley, St George, oversees more than 4 000 acres of arable land while the Barbados Energy and Sugar Company Inc. (BESCO) manages the island’s last remaining factory, Portvale. The two firms took over the business from the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC). After the government’s divestment on December 19, ABC and BESCO, subsidiaries of the Barbados Sustainable Energy Cooperative Society Ltd (CoopEnergy Barbados), began operations on January 15.

The other group of private sugar estate owners, Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL), the last remnant of the sugar planters who ran the industry for most of its 400-year history, indicated in mid-February that it was ready to take part in the harvest. Last year, the BSIL farmers produced 79 000 tonnes of cane and they estimate they would produce about 85 000 this year, an increase of about seven per cent.

Stressing that all operations now fall within the domain of private enterprise, Lt Col Browne declared that from now on, CoopEnergy will decide if and when it will make public any developments of its business.

“While, as a cooperative society we will strive for full transparency and openness, strategic, business, and management decisions, including such issues as when it best suits our management teams to commence crop operations and when we choose to make public statements, will henceforth be driven by our internal policies and procedures,” he said.

He reiterated that CoopEnergy was an investment cooperative, with a focus on sustainable energy. He said the sugar industry presented a most excellent foundation asset for any serious push into renewable energy and this was the reason why the co-op jumped in headfirst to buy out the BAMC when the opportunity presented itself, even though the sector had a reputation for declining performance and operational losses.

Initially, Browne and his team projected that there would be continued losses in the sugar industry but it would be easily buttressed by expected profits from the new renewable energy projects that were planned.

But, he said, the co-op was more optimistic in its outlook, pointing out that “to date, the results and the future indications have exceeded our best hopes by far”.

“Even before the next steps into renewable energy are implemented, we are now confident that the Barbados sugar industry can be sustainable and profitable on its own. Many of the loss-making aspects of the BAMC were quite easily discovered, and are now being addressed from the perspective of a privately owned, professionally run business. Our discussions with employees and with the unions so far lead us to believe that a new type of relationship will be developed, one that will be to the benefit of everyone involved. Our interactions with other stakeholders such as planters, retailers, food farmers, rum producers etc, similarly suggest that a synergetic sugar industry future is achievable.

“CoopEnergy Barbados is extremely optimistic that our entry into the sugar industry has been a key strategic move that presents a most excellent platform for growth and development of our cooperative ownership initiative. Our current investment strategy has now been updated to reflect the unexpectedly sound performance of the restructured industry to date. We have also moved to the second phase of our investment programme where we have invited the targeted interest of CoopEnergy members to participate more extensively in this exciting opportunity.”

The CoopEnergy boss also said that there was major restructuring in the transition into a private enterprise and the management of ABC and BESCO devised a strong formula that would see the success of the co-operative movement.

“Some of these changes included the introduction of the concept of cooperative ownership; the immediate right-sizing of the two organisations; steps to advance the enfranchisement of all of our workers; a full review of all business processes, contracts and agreements commenced; and a complete review of relationships with all stakeholders is underway,” he said.

Last year, Barbados harvested 109 493 tonnes of cane which produced 7 048 tonnes of molasses and 6 848 tonnes of sugar.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb