Barbados, home to the English Caribbean’s earliest successful commercial sugar industry, is set to become the new headquarters of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC), nearly four centuries after the island began exporting sugar.
The relocation from Trinidad was described by SAC chairman Mac McLachlan as a sensible move for the nearly 100-year-old regional trade body.
Its new headquarters will now be in the same country as its “main asset”, the world-renowned West Indies Central Sugarcane Breeding Station which it has owned since 1962.
Speaking to reporters after the formal opening of the SAC’s 178th Board of Directors meeting at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, McLachlan said the relocation would be its first since its establishment in the 1930s.
Founded in the 1930s, the SAC represents sugar manufacturers in Barbados, Belize, Guyana and Jamaica. Previously known as the West Indies Sugar Association, it has historically co-ordinated regional sugar exports and represented producers in international trade arrangements.
He said: “[The move] is in recognition of the fact that when SAC was first formed, which was back in the 1930s, most of the islands in the Caribbean produced sugar, including Trinidad, and Trinidad was the basis for the Sugar Association of the Caribbean, which represents the interests of all sugar manufacturers in the region.”
But, he noted that, like many other islands, Trinidad had stopped producing sugar, leaving only Barbados, Belize, Jamaica and Guyana “which not only remained in sugar, but are committed to the future of sugar to ensure we feed the Caribbean market with sugar”.
He added: “The Sugar Association of the Caribbean’s main asset is actually the cane breeding station, which is based in Barbados. This is the world’s foremost facility for crossing sugar cane, acknowledged all over the world… and is actually owned by the Sugar Association of the Caribbean. So, at this juncture in our emerging history, I think it makes a lot of sense for the SAC to be domiciled in Barbados.”
The West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station traces its roots to sugar cane breeding work which began in Barbados in 1888 by renowned agronomist John Redman Bovell. Formally established in 1932 under the then Department of Agriculture, it was managed by the SAC’s precursor, the West Indies Sugar Association. The station develops cane varieties suited to the needs of member countries and supplies seed for local testing and selection.
The SAC was recognised as a regional contributor by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) trade ministers, which made it “very appropriate that we should be in Barbados, which itself is looking to move forward with its sugar efficiency and productivity rapidly, and SAC is able to support that process”, said McLachlan.
The relocation of the headquarters was one of the main items on the SAC board of directors’ agenda.
(EJ)
