ALTERNATIVE USES FOR SUGARCANE IM THE CARIBBEAN BASIN

Alex G. Alexander

No 261655, 19th Annual Meeting, September 11-17, 1983, Puerto Rico from Caribbean Food Crops Society

Abstract: For centuries a major agricultural commodity in the Caribbean Basin, sugar planting is an increasingly unprofitable enterprise today. Contributing factors include rising labor costs, rising costs of production operations, a chronically-depressed sugar market, and increased industrial usage of alternative sweeteners such as the high-fructose corn syrups. Diversification of sugarcane plantations into horticultural and cattle commodities is one option given serious consideration. An alternative option is the management of cane as a multi-product biomass commodity featuring fuels, chemical feedstocks, syrup, and high-test molasses, in audition to the traditional sugar and blackstrap molasses products. This option is attractive from a botanical standpoint owing to the special growth attributes of the cane plant It is also attractive for social and economic reasons, particularly in developing tropical nations having little in the way of fossil energy but long experience with sugarcane.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15
Date: 1983-09-11
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:cfcs83:261655

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.261655

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