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Mauritius Agriculture and Fishing
Sugar
In 1990 the government initiated a five-year plan
costing
MauR7.3 billion to bolster the sugar industry. Sugarcane
covers
45 percent of the total area of Mauritius and more than 90
percent of the cultivated land. Nineteen large estates
account
for about 55 percent of the 76,000 hectares planted in
cane and
range in size from about 730 hectares to 5,500 hectares.
(Land in
Mauritius is also measured in an archaic French unit, the
arpent.) Mauritian firms own fifteen of these
plantations;
the British multinational Lonrho owns two and controls a
Mauritian firm which owns another; and the Mauritian
government
owns one estate. Some 35,000 small growers (with plots
ranging
from less than one hectare to about 400 hectares) tend the
remainder of the crop and send their harvest for
processing to
the large planters, each of whom owns a sugar factory.
Since 1951 the production of sugar has been encouraged
by
marketing arrangements with consuming countries
(principally
Britain), which have guaranteed prices and markets for the
Mauritian crop. The government has acquired a portion of
this
reliable sugar income through a sugar export tax. By the
mid1980s this tax had evolved into a steeply progressive one,
with
producers of under 1,000 tons of cane paying no tax,
producers of
1,000 to 3,000 tons paying 15.75 percent, and producers of
more
than 3,000 tons paying 23.625 percent. This tax provided
13
percent of the government's revenues in 1986. However,
complaints
mainly by the large miller/planters and severe economic
pressures
on the sugar industry prompted the government in 1993 to
reduce
the tax in each category by 9.4 percent. This move met
opposition
by many who claimed the large growers were being given
favorable
treatment.
Since 1975 Mauritius has had an export quota of about
500,000
tons per year under the Sugar Protocol of the
Lomé Convention (see Glossary),
the largest share of all nineteen
signatories.
The guaranteed price in 1991 was nearly twice the world
freemarket price. In 1992 the country exported 597,970 tons of
sugar;
of this amount, Britain received 498,919 tons.
Production has remained steady at between 600,000 and
700,000
tons since the mid-1960s. The exception occurs when severe
cyclones or droughts cause a decline in the cane harvest.
Since 1984 the Mauritius Sugar Authority, operating
under the
Ministry of Agriculture, has advised the government
regarding
sugar policy. In addition, the authority acts as a nexus
between
the government and the numerous organizations involved in
sugar
production. These organizations include parastatal,
producers',
and workers' organizations, as well as extension and
research
bodies. The private Mauritius Sugar Syndicate, which has
offices
in London and Brussels, handles all aspects of domestic
and
foreign sugar marketing, including transportation,
finance,
insurance, and customs duties. The Mauritius Sugar
Industry
Research Institute (MSIRI) conducts research in such areas
as
plant breeding, entomology, and food-crop agronomy.
Data as of August 1994
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