The sugar mill in Barahona, one of the few remaining from what was once the nation’s major export, is now being operated by the Consorcio Azucarero Central, a Guatemalan company. In its attempts to modernize sugar production, the mill has introduced many modern improvements replacing the older methods of production. As a result, hundreds, if not thousands, of workers have lost their jobs in the fields and at the mill itself. The evidence is seen in the bateyes – the traditional housing areas for cane field and sugar factory workers. People have been replaced with machines and residents in the sugar cane bateyes have turned to subsistence farming, motorcycle taxiing and day labor at reduced rates. In Bahoruco, Barahona and Independencia, provinces with poverty rates as high as 60%, the fact that the sugar mill is reducing personnel hits hard. One foreman reported that 300 workers now do the work that used to be done by 2,000.
As reported, machinery operators are not making large salaries either, given the number of unemployed. Their salaries range from just RD$3,000 to RD$15,000 a month, not counting incentives, and a day laborer receives just RD$185 per day. One example of the major investments made by the sugar mill is the new washing facility that can wash 250 wagonloads of sugar cane in 24 hours, reducing the losses of the product before it gets to the factory.