Post forecasts Jamaica’s sugar production down eight percent to 36,000 metric tons (MT) for marketing year (MY) 2023/2024, an outlook that reinforces a trend already underway with past estimates for this waning industry. For years, the Jamaican sugar industry has experienced lingering challenges constraining production, such as labor shortages, low-quality sugarcane, and the high costs of production, key factors that have contributed to the closure of all but two sugar mills across the island. For MY2023/2024, Jamaica will continue to export raw sugar to the United States under the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) program. However, it remains unlikely that the industry will fill the entire quota due to low production and falling sugar prices on the world market. Jamaica will likely continue to supply the local market, where prices are more competitive.
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