Annual Report 1961 - BEEP

SUGARMANUFACTURE1. THE PERFORMANCE OF SUGAR FACTORIES IN 1961J. D. de R. de SAINT ANTOINE'WITH the closing down of Labourdonnais,only 23 factories were in operationin 1961. A synopsis of the chemicalcontrol figures of these factories is givenin tables XVII (i) - (v) of the Appendix.Cane and Sugar Production.In spite of a severe drought which prevailedduring the first months of the growing season,a record weight of cane amounting to close tofive million tons was harvested, partly as aresult of the late rains that fell during thematurity period. These late rains, however, had avery marked effect on cane quality so that thetonnage of sugar manufactured was some 28,000tons short of the 1959 record. Table 27gives the area harvested, cane crushed andsugar production figures for the past five years.Table 27.Area harvested (thousand arpents) cane crushed and sugar produced (thousand metric tons).1957 1958 1959 1960 1961*Area harvested 169.6 176.7 183.I 186.0 186.4Cane crushed 4,343.8 4,329.0 4,743.3 2,393.5 4,943.0Sugar produced98.5° Pol 562.0 525.8 581.0 236.1 553.4Cane Quality.As already pointed out. cane quality waspoor in 1961, averaging 12.81 for the islandas a whole, with a minimum figure of only11.65 recorded at one factory for the crop.The low sucrose content of the cane in 1961results not only from a wet maturity period butalso from the fact that a number of factorieshad to start crushing early in order to meetexport quotas. Thus, three factories startedlate in June and by the 15th of July thirteenwere m operation. Further, the duration ofthe crop was very long, averaging 123 days asagainst a figure of 108 days for the period1956-59; thus, whereas most factories normallyterminate their crop by the end of November,in 1961, eighteen factories were still crushingin December.Sucrose content ligures for the varioussectors of the island arc given in Table 28 forthe period 1957-61 whereas average fibre percent cane and mixed juice Gravity Purity forthe same period arc given in Table 29.• Provisional figures.