In early January amendments were made to the controlled price regulations for both brown and plantation white sugar. It's the first increase in price for sugar since 2001 - so many consumers are experiencing sticker shock. CEO Servulo Baeza broke down those prices for us and explained what the new adjustment should reflect.
Servulo Baeza, CEO, Ministry of Agriculture
"We had a control price for brown sugar and plantation white, a retail control price. That's all we had. So the retail price for brown sugar was 39 cents and the retail price for plantation white was 75 cents."
"That's all the SI had and that's all the control that we had. That price for brown sugar at 39 cents was set from 2001. So that's like 25 years ago. Plantation white, that 75 cents was set in 2016. So that's about nine years ago."
"10 years ago, sorry. 10 years ago. So those, so you can see, I mean, especially for the brown, I mean, from 25 years ago, that was the price. And that was the one that was mostly where the mill was saying that that was way below the cost of production."
"And so the claim was that the plantation white was actually subsidizing the production of the brown sugar. That the price for the plantation white was actually subsidizing the price for the brown sugar."
"So after extensive back and forth to the mill, we came up with the new supply control regulations, which is the one that was passed right now, was gazetted the 17th of January 2026. And we did quite a few changes."
"In terms of the whole regulations, we set a maximum price now for the mill. So at what price the mill sells. If you go by pound, it will be 70 cents now for brown sugar. The 25 kilogram sack is 38.50 and the maximum retail price is $77 for the 50 kilogram."
"So the mill now also has a control price of how the price this which wasn't there before."
