Improved Technologies in Sugar Cane Production Systems in the Caribbean Region
Note that the course assessment is:
- Term paper report: 25%
- Oral Presentation: 25%
- Final Exam paper: 50%
Due to travel restriction, no field trip can be accommodated by the hosting facilities until
further notice from them.
For the term paper and as indicated to you earlier, you need to write a report (10 - 15 pages),
and the oral presentation will be scheduled at the end of the semester. The term paper should
be submitted after your oral presentation with the corrections if needed.
History of Sugar cane production in the Caribbean
Define improved technology
So you gain production systems
Define Caribbean region
Is there a sugar cane production in the Caribbean starting from slavery to abolition of slavery then
stopIntroduction of new Sugar cane production Tech in the Caribbean
History of Sugar cane production in the Caribbean
In the 1550,s the Portuguese commenced sugar cane production off the Coast of
their Brazilian Colony and amasses tremendous wealth from the cultivation of Sugar
Cane .
Others observed the economic development as a result of the sugar cane plantation
system and began to colonize the American Territories , to capitalize on the trade of
natural resources.
Sugar Cane production was the main economic activity of the region in the 18th, 19,
and 20th Centuries. A large majority of the Caribbean Islands were covered with
Sugar cane fields and Sugar Mill that was used to refine the crop accented the
landscape of the Islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_plantations_in_the_Caribbean
For the contest of this paper, the Caribbean Region is defined as the region of the
Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts.
To be more specific the region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North
American mainland, east of Central America and north of South America and consist
of these Island Territories
The Bahamas
The Turks and Caicos Islands
Cayman Islands
Cuba
Hispaniola
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
Puerto Rico
St. Croix
St. Thomas
St. John
Water Island
Tortola
Virgin Gorda
Anegada
Jost Van Dyke
Anguilla
Antigua & Barbuda
St. Martin
Saba
St. Eustacia
St. Barts
St. Kitts and Nevis
Montserrat
Guadeloupe
Dominica
Martinique
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Grenada
Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago
Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao
And Guyana is located on the South American continent.
The main source of labour on the sugar plantations, before the Abolition of Slavery in
1836, was enslaved Africans. After the Abolition of Slavery, indentured servants from
India, China and Portugal, and other territories were brought to the Caribbean to
work in the sugar
Industry.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_plantations_in_the_Caribbean
The plantations in the Caribbean produced 80-90percent of the sugar that was
consumed in Western Europe. Sugar beet production in Europe replaced the Sugar
imports from the Caribbean Region and played a major role in the decline of the
sugar industry in the region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_plantations_in_the_Caribbean
Sugar created a unique political ecology, the relationship between labor, profits, and ecological
consequences, in the Caribbean.[3] Imperial powers forcefully displaced west African peoples to
cultivate sugar using slave labor. By exploiting labor and the natural world, imperial conflicts
arose in the Caribbean vying for political and economic control. For example, conflicts among the
English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and various indigenous peoples manifested for territorial gain;
regarding the region's political ecology, these European states exploited the environment's
resources to such an extent that sugar production began to stagnate.[4] Due to the loss of trees,
needed for timber in the sugar refinement process, European imperial powers began competing
and fighting over the Caribbean during the middle 17th century.[4] This process would not have
been possible without the invention of windmill to produce the sugar more efficiently.[5]
Following European settlers’ entry into the Caribbean world, massive demographic changes
occurred. Indigenous populations began dying at unprecedented rates due to the influx of old
world diseases brought by colonists. Estimates of these population losses vary from 8.4 million to
112.5 million.[6] This extreme diminishment of native populations cleared room for the plantation
construction and lessened the conflicts between Europeans and indigenous peoples.
19th century[edit]
After the end of slavery in Saint Domingue at the turn of the 19th century, with the Haitian
Revolution, Cuba became the most substantial sugar plantation colony in the Caribbean,
outperforming the British islands.[citation needed]
In the 19th century, sugar dominated Martinique, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Croix, Barbados,
the Leeward Islands, Saint Domingue, Cuba, as well as many other islands that had been run
by French, British, or Spanish owners. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, the sugar cane
industry came to dominate Puerto Rico's economy, both under the colonial rule of Spain and
under the United States.
After slavery, sugar plantations used a variety of forms of labour including workers imported from
colonial India and Southern China working as indentured servants on European owned
plantations (coolie). In the 20th century, large-scale sugar production using wage labour
continued in many parts of the region.
Decline of the sugar industry in the Caribbean
IN ITS 18th-century heyday cane grown in the Caribbean and cut by African slaves
provided Britain with nearly all its sugar. The masters of this brutal trade made
enormous fortunes. But it has seen 200 years of decline, accelerating after slavery ended
in 1838. Now the region is wondering how it will cope after a policy change by the
European Union which could finally bring down the curtain.
Today, the English-speaking Caribbean produces under 0.3% of the world’s sugar; Brazil
grows nearly a quarter. Many islands have abandoned cane for more profitable activities.
Trinidad closed its last sugar factory in 2007, and a gas-related boom took up the slack.
St Kitts shut its last factory two years earlier, after the debts of its state-owned managers
approached a third of GDP. A railway that trundled cane now carries tourists. St Kitts’s
new staple is passports for foreigners, sales of which finance an opaque development
agency, the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation.
Four Caribbean countries retain their taste for the sweet stuff; altogether, the industry
employs more than 40,000 people. But even where it survives, sugar is in trouble. In
Guyana 5% of workers still cut cane. But the state-owned sugar company has been losing
money since 2008, and exports are expected to plunge by nearly 40% this year. Nearly
half the people on the payroll fail to show up regularly. The ruling coalition, which relies
on voters of African origin, has laid off 3,500 workers who are mostly of Indian descent;
this risks inflaming racial tension. The government has put three of its six sugar estates
up for sale. There may or may not be bidders.
Jamaica has privatised, de-privatised and re-privatised its failing sugar estates, selling
three to a Chinese company in 2011. The buyer now complains of low productivity and
an awkward government, and says growing sugar is easier in Africa. In Barbados sugar
accounts for only 0.2% of foreign-exchange revenues (down from 55% in 1946), but the
government says it hopes to revive the industry with a new $270m factory on the site of
an old one. The project has now been blocked by an environmental lawsuit. Only in
Belize, where sugar provides a quarter of export earnings, does it seem to have a future.
Last year a Guatemalan firm opened a factory there producing high-value white sugar.
The region’s wrinkled terrain and volatile weather make it hard to compete against the
mechanised sugar operations of Brazil and Australia; average costs in the Caribbean
exceed the world price. Britain long offered the industry tariff protection, which was
formalised by a Commonwealth Sugar Agreement in 1951. After Britain joined the
European Economic Community in 1973, it ensured Caribbean producers had access to
the club at high guaranteed prices. This mollycoddled outdated practices, like harvesting
by hand.
The EU has been reducing protection since 2005; first it cut the guaranteed price, then
abolished it. In October the EU ended quotas which had limited the beet its farmers
could grow. Output of European sugar is likely to surge, depressing world prices.
To avert catastrophe, Jamaica’s growers propose that Caricom, a group of 15 mostly
English-speaking Caribbean countries and territories, should slap a tariff of 40% on sugar
from outside. But with many regional economies either stagnant or wrecked by storms,
the 7m people affected will balk at a policy that will raise the cost of biscuits and fizzy
drinks, consolations which need lots of imported sugar.
Present -2022
May 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian sugar cane mills are cancelling some
sugar export contracts and diverting production to ethanol to cash in
on high energy prices, according to people with direct knowledge of
the deals, raising concerns of a sugar shortage.
Nearly every company involved in sugar trading in Brazil has seen
cancellations, a trader at a large international commodities
merchant told Reuters on the sidelines of Sugar Week in New York
last week. He estimated total cancellations so far at 200,000 to
400,000 tonnes of raw sugar.
"It is happening because of the production mix change and also
because of the crop delay," the trader said.
Brazil exports around 2.2 million tonnes of sugar per month during
the peak of the crop. A large fall in sugar output could lead to a
global sugar shortage, some traders say. read more
Most mills in Brazil are flexible and can partially shift from sugar or
ethanol production. Right now, production is shifting in favor of
ethanol as high energy prices driven by pandemic recovery and war
in Ukraine spur more fuel output. read more
Recent analyst projections show lower sugar output numbers and
higher ethanol volumes because biofuel sales have become more
profitable for mills. Ethanol sales increased 2.6% in April.
A second trader, also working for a large international food
merchant, confirmed the cancellations - known in the industry as
washouts - and said most traders are trying to be flexible when
negotiating. "These are take-or-pay contracts, there is a fee, so
sometimes the cost could be high for the mill," he said.
An executive at one of the largest mills in Brazil who asked not to
be named said the gains from shifting from sugar to ethanol offset
the costs of cancellations. Brazil is second largest ethanol producer
after the United States.
"Ethanol sales are paid in one or two days, while export sugar takes
much longer, and mills have many bills to pay in the harvest kickoff," he said.
Hydrous ethanol was trading at the equivalent of a sugar price of 20
cents per pound late last week, while sugar futures in New York
were trading a bit over 19 cents per pound.
Last season mills used 45% of the sugarcane crop to make sugar
and 55% to make ethanol. Every percentage point corresponds to
around 700,000 tonnes of sugar.
According to data from sugar industry group UNICA, the lowest
sugar mix was 34.3% in 2019, a year of low sugar prices. The
highest was 49.7% in 2006, when higher prices prevailed.
22 MARCH 2022
High crude oil and gasoline prices are boosting demand for ethanol and
increasing the likelihood that sugar mills in Brazil will direct a greater
percentage of their sugarcane crop to domestic ethanol production.
With Brazil’s sugar stocks already running 35% below their historical
average, any further tightening in the country’s sugar supplies could
push sugar prices higher and squeeze profit margins for users
ranging from candy and snack makers to bakeries and soft drink
manufacturers.
Prospects could improve, however, when this season’s sugarcane
harvest begins in April. Recently, the dry conditions brought on by
the La Niña weather pattern have started to ease in Brazil, which has
raised the possibility of a stronger crop. According to the Gro Climate
Risk Navigator application, sugarcane fields in São Paulo, the biggest
producing state, have already seen 49% more rainfall in the first three
months of 2022 compared to the same period last year.
Increased precipitation in early 2022 could give a boost to Brazil’s big
sugarcane crop ahead of the harvest beginning in April. This chart
from Gro’s Climate Risk Navigator for Agriculture application shows
aggregated daily precipitation increased in 2022 in sugarcane
growing areas of São Paulo, the biggest producing state.
Sugar prices, which have shot up 20% in the past 12 months, are already
increasing input costs for some popular consumer items. For example,
largely due to rising sugar prices, the cost of making a popular milk
chocolate bar that contains 15% sugar, as well as other ingredients, has
increased 21.5% year-over-year, according to Gro’s Custom Price Index
application.
Gro’s new Custom Price Index application lets food manufacturers create a
price index that is tailored to a specific product’s key ingredients and
weightings so that they can better manage their margins and understand
their underlying costs.
Brazil is the world’s largest sugar producer and exporter, and its
sugar mills can switch between sugar and ethanol production based
on market prices. Last year, 54% of sugarcane went into producing
ethanol, close to the 10-year average of 56%.
In Brazil, year-over-year hydrous ethanol prices have climbed 20% to
$5.34, as crude oil prices have skyrocketed to their highest levels
since September 2014. Domestically, the gap between ethanol and
gasoline has also widened. Average ethanol retail prices are currently
$1.40 below gasoline prices. The spread between the two
products has widened 29% since Jan. 2, 2022.
Meanwhile, sugar futures prices have also soared, largely because La
Niña-induced prolonged drought conditions reduced the sugarcane harvest
in Brazil’s 2021/2022 marketing year, which resulted in a 14% decline in
sugar production. That outcome limited availability from the world’s largest
sugar exporter.
However, global sugar stocks have been stabilized by a record sugar
production in India and a strong crop in Thailand. Brazil also increased its
percentage of sugarcane processed into sugar in the past two years to
45% from 35% previously, while ethanol production declined.