Sugar City low on brown sugar!

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MANY concerned retailers and consumers are worried about the supply of brown sugar as there seems to be a shortage of the commodity in the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

It has been widely rumoured that Guyana, the sole provider of brown sugar to the country, has been given a suspension from the Common External Tariff (CET) for 11 000 tonnes of sugar; and so, the Federation has to seek an alternative source for brown sugar because Guyana’s sugar supply is seemingly unreliable.

Guyana is the only CARICOM member state that provides sugar to the countries of the region and has been doing so for the past five years or so.

However, it has been circulated that although Guyana has a “moral responsibility” to supply sugar to CARICOM member states, it is slowly reducing supply and greatly considering the attractive offer by the EU, which includes better prices.

According to BBC Caribbean, “Sugar is Guyana’s main export and biggest foreign exchange earner, but studies show the county’s sugar industry is old and inefficient.

The cost of producing sugar in Guyana is as much as three times higher than some other sugar producing countries.

Guyana is very dependent the sugar prices paid by Europe, which are much higher than world market prices.”     

Unconfirmed statements reaching this media house suggest that St. Kitts and Nevis is now receiving less than half of the expected amount of sugar, and it is projected that this amount would dwindle in less than three weeks.

SKNVibes carried out an informal interview of 30 retailing outlets throughout St. Kitts and Nevis yesterday (September 4). The findings indicated that 24 of the shops had not received their scheduled supply of brown sugar within two weeks and the remaining six had sold out their stock since last week.

It is also rumoured that the Guatemala sugar is being considered as replacement for that from Guyana, but was viewed as unattractive because it does not dissolve readily.

It has been a similar case in Jamaica where all of Appleton’s brown sugar produce is exported to the EU and is not even able to sustain the local market.

SKNVibes sent an email with ten questions surrounding the matter to the National Supply Office, but no response was given. Efforts to reach the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs proved futile.