It’s official: local sugar prices will rise

What was informed speculation on Monday has become gospel on Wednesday. Cabinet has decided that the best way to pay for the increase in sugar cane prices demanded by farmers is to raise the price of local sugar. Those rates are expected to rise by ten and twelve cents per pound respectively when the new crop of plantation white and brown sugar hits the shelves in January. What is not entirely clear from the government press release is whether the increases apply to the wholesale or retail level. When the new cane price of forty dollars and thirty-three cents per ton was announced, it was computed by BSI on the basis of ten and twelve cent rises for sugar at the wholesale level. If this is the case, then the new retail control prices will likely be pegged at forty-five cents for plantation white and thirty-nine cents for brown. Prices for local sugar have remained unchanged since 1987 and even at their new level remain the lowest in Central America and the Caribbean.