Chapter 5


 FACTORS INFLUENCING YIELDS AND PRODUCTION:
 ECONOMICS AND FARM ORGANISATION


Changes in growers' prices 1955-60

 Comparative prices cannot mean a great deal in areas where the general price levels
are different. However, the figures in Table 4. 5. i below do give some indications of re-
cent changes in prices paid to growers of sugar cane.


 Table 4. 5.i

 Prices per ton paid to farmers for sugar cane by territories, 1955 through 1959

 Territory 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
 BWI$

Jamaica 12.44 12.78 14.68 13.16 12.66
Trinidad and Tobago 11.97 10.98 14.53 11.44 12.30
Antigua 11.65 11.30 14.61 11.00 13.20
St. Kitts 12.80 12.21 16.54 13.01 13.20
Barbados 15.17 14.68 17.55 14.87 15.80
British Guiana 8.94 9.48 11.05 9.00 8.70


 Source: British West Indies Sugar Association.


 Prices for cane vary to some extent with the sucrose content of the cane and also are
influenced by the average price per ton of sugar exported, which itself may depend on how
much has to be sold outside the negotiated price quota. It will be noted that 1957 prices
were highest but that in most territories 1959 prices were higher than those of 1958.

 If the production of cane reaches the figure which we have predicted we expect an in-
creased proportion of total sugar will be sold at prices below the negotiated price. How-
ever, the effect of this is likely to influence prices by approximately 8% to 10% in any one
year.

 In British Guiana the price of higher quality rice has risen consistently since 1955 as is
shown in Table 4. 5. ii.