TBINIDAD AND TOBAGO BULLETIN. 



[XIX. 1. 



THE OPPORTUNITY FOR CANE SUGAR. 



In the past the West Indian sugar industry has gone through hard 

 thiies, due largely to the competition of bounty fed beet sugar. These 

 times are past ; we hope never to recur. In the future cane and beet 

 •will compete on at least equal terms and cane will then be able to hold 

 its own. This does not however mean that in Trinidad we can afford to 

 stand still. The market price of sugar — when the world's conditions 

 become more normal — will doubtless be fixed by the cost of production 

 in the most efficient cane producing countries, e.g., Cuba and Java. 



In a paper read before the Agricultural Society in 1915 and published 

 in its Proceedings XV. 162-9 and in the Bulletin, DeiKirtment of 

 Agriculture, XIV. 103-7, I showed by a coloured diagram the world's 

 production of cane and beet sugar, which was in tons : — 



1860 

 1903 

 1913 



Cane. 

 1,250,000 

 5,800,000 

 9,000,000 



Beet. 

 250,000 

 6,000,000 

 6,800,000 



Also by another diagram the chief sources of supply of sugar 

 consumed in the United Kingdom. It is of great interest to compare 

 the latter for 1913, the year before the war, with 1918. 



SUGAR USED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



Cane. 

 British. 

 British West Indies and British Guiana 

 Rest of British Empire ..; 



Foreign. 



tJ QjVcu »•• ••• «•• 



Peru and Brazil 

 Other Countries 



Total Cane Sugar 



320,000 



Germany... 

 Austria-Hungary 

 Holland ... 

 Belgium ... 

 Other Countries 



Beet. 



1,295,000 



Total Beet Sugar 



Grand Total Cane and Beet 



Beet sugar it will be seen has practically disappeared, leaving a gap 

 of 1,500,000 tons which has been partially filled by larger imports of cane 

 sugar, leaving however a shortage of 500,000 tons! This extra cane 

 sugar it should be borne in mind came chiefly from foreign sources, 

 notably Cuba, which sent to the United Kingdom 824,000 tons of sugar 

 in 1918, roughly fifty times the Trinidad total annual export. 



