Population and resources of Barbados / by Lord Simon of Wythenshawe.

  • Simon, E. D. (Ernest Darwin), 1879-1960.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Population and resources of Barbados / by Lord Simon of Wythenshawe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    III THE MARKET FOR SUGAR Barbados produces less than per cent of the world's annual crop of sugar. It is therefore entirely dependent on the outside world for markets and prices. There is a complicated series of agreements covering quotas, subsidies, prices, and preferences for the world as a whole, and within the world agreement for the Commonwealth. Under the Commonwealth sugar agreement, Barbados is assured of a mar¬ ket mainly in the United Kingdom for a quota which is at present 163,000 tons per annum. Home consumption in Barbados is something over 10,000 tons per annum, so that Barbados is assured of a market for 173,000 tons, and has in fact hitherto been able to sell at a good price all she has been able to produce. The price is at present determined by a formula settled in 1950. The position is complicated because there is a guaranteed price for most, but not all of the quota. The average price in recent years has been about £40 per ton, which is estimated to have been some £8 to £10 above the price which Barbados would have secured if it had received no preferential treatment under the Commonwealth sugar agreement. Both political parties in Britain have a strong sense of responsibility for the Colonies, and so far as can be foreseen, a preferential price of this sort may be expected to continue. It is guaranteed for the next six years under the Commonwealth agreement. The importance to Barbados of this agreement lies in the assurance it gives that there will be a market for satisfactory quantities of their sugar at an economic price and over a long period—^in short, security and stability. If this agreement were 9