- FileCutting cane the traditional way.
Marjorie Stair, Western Bureau Chief
THE SUGAR cane can produce more sucrose from an acre of land than any other plant. Sucrose, glucose and fructose are common carbohydrates. Sucrose is made from a combination of glucose and fructose.
The origins of the sugar cane are lost in time but it is thought to have been first cultivated in the South Pacific. The sugar cane is a member of the grass family and will grow only in tropical and sub-tropical climates. It is the stalk of the sugar cane that acts as a store for sucrose, which is the plant's energy reserve, with the active growth of the cane taking place in the green top. The pith, the moist soft centre of the cane contains the juice of the plant in which the sugars are dissolved, the outer rind gives the stalk strength and acts as a barrier to insects and animals.
It is said that sugar became known to Western civilisation when an invading army of Alexander the Great observed its cultivation in India in 325BC. The only sweetening agent known to Europe and the Mediterranean, before this, was honey. Sugar is, however, mentioned in the Bible: "Of what use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land?" Jeremiah 6:20
Sugar cultivation spread from India to China, to the Persian Gulf, North Africa, Sicily, Spain and Portugal - everywhere that the conquering Arab armies went they planted their Muslim religion and sugar cane. It was Christopher Columbus, whose father-in-law grew sugar cane in the Canary Islands of Spain who brought the sugar cane to the Caribbean, planting them on the Spanish colony of Hispaniola where, it is said, the sugar cane thrived and multiplied much better than the men who planted it and tended it.
Introduced
Spanish settlers introduced the sugar cane to Jamaica in 1509 and established the capital of Sevilla Nueva. Although sugar cane production spread over the island, its growth and expansion was limited by a lack of labour and was restricted to local use. The slave trade changed this situation. It was the British settlers, who took over the island from the Spaniards in 1665, who were to make sugar king, thereby transforming the West Indian, notably the Jamaican, sugar planters into the wealthiest men of their time. Jamaica's development and history has since retained close links with the fortunes of the sugar industry.
Ian Sangster, in his little book, Sugar and Jamaica, tells us that in 1699, Jamaica made 4,500 tons of sugar, half as much as Barbados. By 1730 it had equalled the production in Barbados and by 1754 it was four times as high. From 57 factories in 1673, the number of factories soared to 775 a hundred years later in 1854 when Jamaica produced 52,000 tons of sugar and was on its way to becoming the world's largest producer of sugar. In 1805, Jamaica produced no less than 100,000 tons of sugar, which earned the equivalent of $12 million. Sangster says it was to be 1936 before Jamaica made as much sugar.
A sugar factory, of which only eight operate in Jamaica today, consists of four main components.:
1. The mill which crushes the juice from the sugar cane
2. The boiling house where the juice is evaporated to sugar and the sugar is crystallised
3. The curing house where the molasses is drained from the sugar and
4. The distillery, where the molasses is made into rum.
The cost of operating a factory and purchasing slaves to keep them in operation was very high but those investing in the Jamaican sugar industry in the 18th century made substantial profit on their investment. Sugar planters amassed huge fortunes, most of which was spent in England. They were so rich that some bought seats in the British House of Parliament and, for some time, West Indian sugar planters dominated Parliament and wielded considerable influence on decisions concerning the trade of sugar in Britain. They built great mansions of 'architectural extravagance' and lived in such luxury that their lifestyle gave rise to the phrase, 'as rich as a West Indian planter'. Most of the planters were absentee farmers, leaving the management of the estates in Jamaica in the hands of their overseers and attorneys.
The system was developed whereby Jamaica, and other sugar producing colonies, produced the brown, crude 'raw' sugar that was sent to Europe for refining into white sugar, described as the classic colonial system of development, which, even today influences the trading arrangements between developing and developed countries. This system results in the colonies, now Third World countries, exporting raw material to the 'mother' country, now First World or developed country, where the raw material is processed and value added, and the finished product is sold back to the colony, now developing country at a profit.
Emancipation and the introduction of the Sugar Equalisation Act resulted in the reversal of the buoyancy of the 18th century sugar industry. As stated above, the industry peaked in 1805, at the beginning of the 19th century, with production of 100,000 tons and Jamaica, then was the world's largest exporter of sugar. Slave trading was abolished in 1807 resulting in an increasing shortage of labour. Other factors included the low efficiency of the sugar industry, operated by overseers and attorneys on behalf of absentee owners, competition from other countries and the Price Equalisation Act. This Act, passed in 1846 eventually resulted in the abolishing of all protective duties, which favoured the colonies and equalised the tariff paid on sugar. Jamaica's sugar, rum, coffee and other exports therefore had no protection against the cheaper products from slave-owing countries like Cuba and Brazil.
Clinton Black, in History of Jamaica points out that the adoption of this Free Trade policy was aimed at making England an industrial nation with a lowered cost of living. The policy, he states, was successful and heralded a period, which was to witness the rise of Britain in power and wealth, but was also to see the rapid decline of the West Indies. The figures below reflect the dramatic decline of sugar production in Jamaica.
Year Sugar Production (tons)
1805 100,000
1838 52,000
1839 39,000
1840 26,000
Efforts to reverse the decline resulted in the importation of indentured labour from Europe, India and China. It is reported that Jamaican planters did not want Indians and wasted much time in unsuccessful attempts to attract German, Scottish and Irish settlers in large numbers. Sangster notes that the labour needs of the sugar industry caused a change in the population of the Caribbean and helped to determine the nature and structure of our present day society.
The sugar estates that survived were the more efficient ones and those that increased investment in mechanisation in face of the increased shortage of labour. These estates were forced to raise their level of efficiency and took the first steps to the development of a modern sugar industry.
Twentieth century sugar production was characterised by periods of ebbs and flows of production, triggered primarily by price. The relationship between price and sugar was that significant increases in production followed price 'peaks', sometimes resulting in markets being flooded with sugar and resulting in prices declining. Low production followed, with increases being triggered by another price 'peak'.
In 1900 Jamaica produced less than 20,000 tons of sugar and, up to 1914 and the First World War, sugar production fluctuated between 24,000 and 5,000 tons per year. Production rose to 47,000 tons from sixty factories in 1919, down to 65,000 tons in 1930 and soared to 271,000 tons in 1950. The dramatic rise in production in 1950 is attributed to the entry of the West Indies Sugar Company and the establishment of the two largest sugar factories in the island, Frome in Westmoreland and Monymusk in Clarendon, with a joint capacity of more than 180,000 tons of sugar per year.
Modernisation
Modern sugar technology, with the invention of electricity, turbines, vacuum pans, multiple effect evaporators and other related inventions set the stage for the design of lager and more efficient sugar factories, a reduction in the cost of producing sugar and the demand for less labour. With modernisation, Jamaica's sugar production peaked in 1965 with a record production of 506,000 tons of sugar produced by 18 factories.
Jamaica produced 216,297 tonnes of sugar in the year 2000. Eight factories and 2,025,116 tonnes of sugar cane produced this. Levels of production in the 20th century are shown below:
Year Sugar production (tons)
1965 506,348
1975 371,376
1980 246,712
1985 205,822
1987 187,964
Jamaica now produces several types of sugar, which differs mainly in the amount of molasses left on the sucrose crystals. The lowest quality is called 'D' sugar, which is usually brown due to the large amount of molasses it contains. There is the lighter 'C' or grocery sugar, and the whitest of all is the refined sugar, which is almost pure sucrose. All Jamaica's refined sugar is made at Monymusk in Clarendon.
By-products of sugar are, of course rum, which earns Jamaica additional foreign exchange. Only sugar factories are allowed by law to make rum and not all factories operate distilleries. Molasses, a by-product in its own right, is used primarily in the manufacture of rum in Jamaica, but can also be used to manufacture other spirits such as gin and vodka, various liqueurs, perfumes and cosmetics. Alcohol has a wide range of chemical and industrial uses. Jamaica has been forced to import molasses for use in its rum and alcohol industries in recent years.
Other by-products include bagasse, used for fuel, to make bagasse board and used to build houses. Bagasse has also been converted and used as animal feed. Bagasse is used to make paper in some countries and, a minor but interesting use in Jamaica, is in the manufacture of baseballs for the American market.
Other sucrose-based, by-products of the sugar industry are detergents, plastics, resins, syrups, vinegar and Vitamin C.
