agreste

Agreste cahiers

Despite diminished importance, the sugar cane sector remains significant in agriculture and in the agri-food industry in Guadeloupe.

Sugar enjoys numerous advantages in terms of its multiple contributions to rural development as well as to the economy in general : high labour revenues (pluriactive farmers), complementary income, dependable revenues, maintenance of the countryside. The importance of services in this particularly organised industry gives it a structuring role for rural areas in terms of income creation and of services to other farm productions. In addition, growing sugar cane, including its related industrial activities, presents no major environmental problems. Sugar cane farming thus appears worth preserving, even within the framework of economic diversification. However it is greatly weakened by its dependence on public support and by the current liberalisation of the EU sugar and rum markets.