RETURNS FROM the 2019 sugar harvest will not be that sweet, say some private farmers.
Their projections came after Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) general manager Leslie Parris estimated last week that 11 000 tonnes of sugar would be produced from 146 000 tonnes of cane.
Last year, more than 140 000 tonnes of cane were delivered to Portvale factory, resulting in just over 11 000 tonnes of sugar.
However, some private producers are lamenting that this year’s yield may not add up to last year’s, due to the late start of the 2018 harvest, and poor rainfall.
“If that is the number he (Parris) came up with based on what every farmer put forward, then so be,” said Michael Gill, of Ashbury Plantation, St George. “But if you assess the facts, I don’t see how you are going to get those yields. If you drive around Barbados you will see that the majority of the canes are short and full of grass; it seems that a lot of fields have not been sprayed.” (SB)
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