The Fanjuls Sugar

AlterEgo

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
24,049
7,571
113
South Coast
AlterEgo said:
Fortune.com yesterday

fortune.com

U.S. finally takes action on Dominican sugar over claims of forced labor: 'We’ve been asking for improvements for decades'

The U.S. said Wednesday it will detain all imports of sugar and related products that Central Romana Corp. makes in the Dominican Republic.
fortune.com fortune.com
Click to expand...

From the article: “Sugarcane workers also have organized several protests this year to demand permanent residencies after working for decades in the Dominican Republic, which is now cracking down on Haitian migrants under Abinader in a move that has drawn heavy international criticism.”

I’m seeing a pattern here. They’re trying to whip the DR into shape. I say they’re interfering in another government’s immigration policy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cavok, Big, JD Jones and 1 other person
P

playacaribe2

Gold
Jan 9, 2004
11,226
2,593
113
AlterEgo said:
Fortune.com yesterday

fortune.com

U.S. finally takes action on Dominican sugar over claims of forced labor: 'We’ve been asking for improvements for decades'

The U.S. said Wednesday it will detain all imports of sugar and related products that Central Romana Corp. makes in the Dominican Republic.
fortune.com fortune.com
Click to expand...
The US only imports 15% of its sugar needs and approximately 17% of that 15% comes from the DR.

Sugar is a commodity and can be easily bought/sold/acquired elsewhere.

While an inconvenience, it hardly qualifies as a policy with any real bite.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
 
  • Like
Reactions: mountainannie and JD Jones
K

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
2,528
830
113
playacaribe2 said:
The US only imports 15% of its sugar needs and approximately 17% of that 15% comes from the DR.

Sugar is a commodity and can be easily bought/sold/acquired elsewhere.

While an inconvenience, it hardly qualifies as a policy with any real bite.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
Click to expand...
Slightly more than an inconvenience who may soon have no money to buy food .
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yourmaninvegas
K

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
2,528
830
113
There is some very good news ...Yesterday , many employees of La Romana Central received, suddenly, the biggest bonus they have ever had. Although some Government people were interviewing employees about grievances , so things are moving forward. Please do not ask me more because I know no more .
 
C

cavok

Silver
Jun 16, 2014
11,000
4,990
113
Cabarete
Kipling333 said:
There are hundreds of machines in all the cane fields around la Romana. When you say all the workers do you mean the mechanics, the truck and tractor drivers, the people processing the cane , the maintenance crews or do you mean just the cane cutters. I do not believe that La Romana Central or the Vicini family employee men to cut the cane through some form of charitable feeling . It is an economic decision where cheap labour is better for company profits than a machine cutting the cane .
Click to expand...
That's only true for now. The fact that there are machines now should speak for itself. The current machines only work on fairly level ground. As better, more efficient, machines are made, and as demands for better pay and working conditions increase, the incentive to employ manual labor will go down and the incentive to buy machines - up.

I'd be willing to bet that, in another 20 years, there will be very few Haitians cutting cane. This is a problem for unskilled workers everywhere. They have a very bleak future.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bob saunders
M

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
113
elizabetheames.blogspot.com
malko said:
Years back there was a documentary on sugar cane workers in the DR ....... not viewable when in the DR, as in blocked. ....... suspicious ? lol


Also years back, touring the island in our pick-up, we ended up someplace or other that had old railroads ( not many trains in the DR ), and i dont recall the exact circumstances, but a bunch of random guys--- as not military or PN--; pulled up and told us not to film/take pictures, can you believe.
Well they should have asked and not told and would have missed out on an earful from the wife🤣🤣🤣🤣
Click to expand...
Is it still blocked
 
M

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
113
elizabetheames.blogspot.com
AlterEgo said:
From the article: “Sugarcane workers also have organized several protests this year to demand permanent residencies after working for decades in the Dominican Republic, which is now cracking down on Haitian migrants under Abinader in a move that has drawn heavy international criticism.”

I’m seeing a pattern here. They’re trying to whip the DR into shape. I say they’re interfering in another government’s immigration policy.
Click to expand...
Yes - I think that the US is indeed sending a message to the DR - asking to stop or at least slow down what is being reported as a recent sorta deportation "sweep" of Haitians in the DR.

Central Romana is a US corporation even though it has operations in the DR. The US Embassy states that it has had reports of its citizens being detained ... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-warns-black-visitors-of-extra-scrutiny-risk

The DR is asking for the international community to "help" with Haiti. Then it uproots the Haitians living and working in the DR and deports them at the rate reported to be about 600 a day. Now reports are circulating about children https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/...blic-has-expelled-1800-children-back-to-haiti. (there is a push here in the US to allow all Haitian to qualify for TPS -temporary protected status)

The stance by the Dominican President may make him very popular with his people. Not so much on the world stage.

Reports coming from Haiti are that the Haitians have closed their border at Ouanaminthe and Dominicans have not been able to sell -- I have not tracked that story from the Dominican side.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yourmaninvegas
keepcoming

keepcoming

Moderator - Living & General Stuff
May 25, 2011
6,219
4,027
113
mountainannie said:
source?
Click to expand...
wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu

Citing 'forced labor', Dominican sugar company banned from importing to US. sugar barons in Florida

Central Romana, one of the biggest sugar producers in the world, will now be banned from exporting sugar to the U.S., after the Biden Administration said it has information “that reasonably indicates the use of forced labor in its operations."
wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu

"The politically connected Fanjul family — a family of sugar barons based in West Palm Beach — own a 35% stake in the company."
 
  • Like
Reactions: bob saunders
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom