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ASR/BSI Looks to CARICOM For Sugar Fix
posted (February 9, 2018)
The Caribbean has four sugar producing countries, and now they are making a pitch to be the sugar of the Caribbean. The Sugar Association of the Caribbean is urging regional manufacturers to use "plantation white" sugar to make soft drinks, cakes and biscuits.

ASR/BSI in Orange Walk produces that sugar, and today the senior Vice President explained why it makes all the sense in the world for the Caribbean to buy sugar from its own:...

Mac MacLachlan, VP - Int'l Relations - ASR Group
"We produce more sugar than we need in the Caribbean and yet we still, as the CARICOM market, import around about 200,000 tons of white sugar from outside the region. What we as the sugar association of the Caribbean on behalf of the 4 producing countries, that's Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Belize. We are making the argument; we don't really think that its necessary. I think we can utilize our sugars effectively in the Caribbean market place. We're arguing on the basis of production and we've been producing quality white sugar here for decades now in Belize that we are increasing that level of production and that that should now have an opportunity in the Caribbean marketplace. The world customs organization which is the organization that sets the standard for Tariff purposes defines any sugars that are above 99.5% purity as white refined sugar. We've been producing that quality here at BSI for decades. I was checking recently and looking at some of the quality of the sugars we are producing now are up to 99.8. It's pretty much as good as it gets. What we're doing is having a really good honest open discussion with manufacturers now across the region to introduce them to this concept that the Caribbean can meet the demands of sugar necessary in the region."

Of course, what McLachlan doesn't say is that sugar produced in the Caribbean is often more expensive that comparable grades produced in bigger countries. Here's how he spun that:

Mac MacLachlan, VP - Int'l Relations - ASR Group
"I think a driving factor in all of this that we can't ignore has been the price. The rice for refined sugar coming from some of the more efficient producers such as Guatemala and Colombia. The benefit of an integrated sugar market in the Caribbean is that prices would be more aligned to the actual production cost of sugar rather than what's happening in the international market which you can't control. They would be aligning to a longer term contract between manufacturer and producer that would benefit both sides and give certainty to future investment and also to the cost of producing their products."

Jamaica produces sugar but its manufacturers import from Guatemala.

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