News is not so good for the sugar industry. As expected, the sugar harvest will be below average this year. The 2006 sugar crop will be about 530,000 tons, according to the estimates of the Chamber of Agriculture. A lower acreage of land dedicated to sugar cane as well as a high rainfall at the beginning of the year are the main reasons for such estimates.

The average harvest is between 550,000 tons and 575,000 tons. However, the estimates for this year are higher than last year?s. Moreover, the extraction rate is expected to be higher than the average of the past ten years. Harvesting starts tomorrow in Mon-Trésor-Mon-Désert ands end in Saint Aubin in December. Within this period of time, the Chamber of Agriculture could review its initial estimates depending on climatic conditions. Another meeting has been planned in August to take stock of the situation. For sugar content to rise, there should be a sunny climate, high temperatures and some rain well distributed over the whole territory. In any case, there is no hope that this year will bring record-statistics in terms of the sugar harvest. But data could change according to conditions during the six-month harvest.

Added to this quite low harvest, the industry has to face another problem. The European Commission will grant the African Caribbean Pacific countries 165 million, considered as too low by those mainly concerned. They expected at least 190 million but the commission looks adamant about its decision.