(Jamaica Gleaner) Sugar produced from the 2010-2011 sugar cane crop was 139,594 tonnes, an increase over the 122,104 tonnes produced in the 2009-2010 crop. The amount represents a turnaround of a downward trend in sugar production since 2007 when the industry produced 164,387 tonnes of sugar.
The total represents the seventh largest amount of sugar produced in any one season over the last decade. In 2004, a tonnage of 183,672 was achieved, eclipsing the 174,640 tonnes produced in 2002.
But according to a report by Earle V. Roberts of the Sugar Industry Research Institute, published in the Jamaica Association of Sugar Technologists’ magazine and presented at the association’s 74th annual conference last week at Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios, there were encouraging features in the industry’s performance for the last crop.
The report said loans provided by the Cane Expansion Fund, amounting to J$154.3 million, enabled the replanting of 600 hectares of sugar cane which helped to boost the industry substantially.