There was sincere goodwill generated when plans were announced to transition the operations of the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) to a privately-held operation that concentrated more on cane production for energy and other byproducts apart from sugar.
The local sugar industry has been on a steady decline since its halcyon days when the foreign exchange generated from bulk sugar sales represented an important source of income to support the operations of government and the economy.
Those days have long passed and as a country, we have taken a decision, rightly or wrongly, to hitch our wagon to the tourism and hospitality sector.
Tourism has been a tremendous attribute in the economic architecture of the island, contributing to infrastructure expansion, job creation and overall economic activity.
At the same time, the sugar industry’s contribution has waned considerably. Agricultural activity has not captured the interest of the younger generation as sugar is still seen as highly labour-intensive, back-breaking work with which it has been associated since the days of slavery.
Despite its negatives, the sugar industry is still valued for the supporting role it plays in the lucrative rum sector through the byproduct of molasses.
Moreover, sugar cane is critical to the agricultural sector and food crop production, as well as maintaining biodiversity, and the natural beauty and environment of the country.
Sugarcane production is also costly. More than $24 million of taxpayers’ money is pumped annually into maintaining the sector, now that others have squeezed all the sweets out of the sugar industry over hundreds of years.
In September, an uproar erupted when the little-known Barbados Sustainable Energy Cooperative Society Ltd (CoopEnergy) led by retired Colonel Trevor Browne, announced it was seeking to invest $100 million to takeover BAMC.
The cooperative said that with the support of the government and investment from credit unions, it was prepared to take over the beleaguered sugar sector, redirecting more of its efforts not to the production of sugar but to the production of energy for electricity.
The ambitions of CoopEnergy were seen as extremely bold but fraught with complications and risks. As a result, it was not surprising that longstanding credit unionists expressed concern that the plan lacked too many specifics, given the level of investment credit union members were being encouraged to put into the project.
Since September, Colonel Browne has not provided the public with any further details except that the group has secured an unnamed foreign investor who would back the agriculture cum energy project.
Even more significant has been the silence of the government, which controls the millions of dollars in assets owned by the BAMC. Important too, is the multi-million-dollar debt instrument issued by BAMC for which hundreds of citizens invested and were negatively impacted in the government’s debt restructuring exercise of 2018/2019.
In its December 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement, it was clear that scaling back its financial backing of the BAMC was among the commitments the government made to the IMF as part of its financial arrangement with the Washington-based institution.
It is important to note that the government committed, in its Supplementary Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies to the IMF, to “scaling back the subsidies and services to the BAMC by creating strategic alliances with the private sector”.
With little more than a three-inch paid advertisement in the press, employees have been left to grumble and wonder about their future.
The media has been left to guess and surmise about what is expected to happen in the new year – whether the BAMC will be producing sugar or electrical power, whether CoopEnergy is the new operator/owner of the sector, or if the government will be the guarantor of BAMC debt.
There are still many questions surrounding the six-line notice in a tiny newspaper advertisement. We urge a comprehensive statement from the government on the matter. The employees who have given years of service and the public deserve nothing less.
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