#2084: RE: 2040 Sugar production: Barnes comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: J Barnes <jbarnes@massed.net>

There are big differences between the way sugarcane was produced in Haiti 
and the DR.  The DR has huge plantation owned by big companies.  Haiti has
small landowners who produce with small investments who have to negotiate
how much they would get for their sugar cane every year.  Haiti's
plantations have poor irrigation and no chemicals to boost the production.
I think I saw that  the farmer in Haiti would get half the sugar that the
Dominican Replublic farmer got for the same amount of cultivated land.  The
Mevs family bought Hasco with some of the Duvalier family and started having
conflicts with the sugar cane farmers.  I believe they figured that with a
monopoly on imports they could make as much money just selling  and it was
much easier than producing.  They still have Hasco and they have a private
dock their for their imports.