Economy

In fact, Barbados was a predominantly agricultural country and sugar reigned supreme.

In recent years, problems associated with sugar on the world market, the low price fetched for this commodity against its high production costs, along with the need to reduce the island’s high food import bill, have led to large-scale efforts at crop diversification.

Today, with almost one million long-stay and cruise ship visitors choosing Barbados as their holiday destination, tourism is now the main foreign exchange earner and employer.

The services sector as a whole constitutes two-thirds of the Barbadian economy. Of the tradeable sectors, trade and tourism are the largest sectors.

Barbados produces some crude oil and natural gas; the former accounting for a third of the country’s requirements.

Manufacturing, which has been in decline since the latter half of the 1980’s has been showing some resurgence during the 1990’s.

Over the past 15 years, the International Business Sector has grown in importance to the extent that it now contributes to a significant percentage of the GDP. It comprises such areas as Insurance, Banking, Financing, Investment Advisory Services, Private Wealth Management, Marketing and Promotion, Claims Processing, Transcription Services, Manufacturing/Assembly of Products, Software Development and Information Technology-based services including Data Processing.

Barbados has a well-educated and trainable workforce, and its legal framework is considered to be a model for offshore centres. As allowed under international trade and financial agreements, Barbados maintains ordinary exchange controls to protect its balance of payments.

In 1993, the country started recovering from a deep recession. The economic revival, driven by tourism, gathered pace in 1994 and has continued into 1998-99. External debt is still manageable, and the debt service ratio remains fairly low. Most of the debt is owned by the public sector.

Government has introduced policies to address the question of labour costs and competitiveness. These include negotiating a Prices and Incomes Policy with the Social Partners which comprise the Private Sector, the Government and Trade Unions, and establishing a National Productivity Board to advise on questions of productivity.

Sugar Cane

Sugar as one of the island’s main crops has been a traditional means of foreign exchange. The production levels for sugar have been relatively consistent in terms of hectares used in production and yields in tonnes.

Some 8600.0 hectares of land are under sugar cane cultivation giving a yield of approximately 58,400 tonnes of sugar with an export value of $57,300,000.

Almost 2,000 hectares of land are under vegetable cultivation. Main crops include cabbage, beans, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and pumpkins.

Barbados currently produces over 60% of local fruit requirements. The focus is on limes, guavas, cherries, grapefruit, mangoes and avocados. The Scotland District has been declared as “Fruit Tree Zone” and the export drive is in the hands of the Barbados Agricultural Development Marketing Corporation (BADMC). Over 213 hectares of land are devoted to fruit production.

Cotton

Cotton is still considered one of the major crops of the diversification thrust. Some 59 hectares of cotton were planted during 2000 yielding almost 11,614.5 kg of processed lint.

Cut Flowers

Cut flowers and foliage targeted at the export market, have taken their place in the diversification thrust.

Barbados has exported approximately 21,061 kg of cut flowers valued at $92,881 during the year 2000.

Livestock and Dairy Industry

Barbados continues to produce enough chicken to satisfy local demand and is also virtually self-sufficient in the production of table eggs. The poultry industry is worth approximately 128 million dollars and within the last five years (1996-2000) has produced twelve million kilograms of chicken from eight million birds annually.

The Pine Hill Dairy traditionally is the main producer of milk on the island. The production levels for milk have remained constant within the last five years (1996-2000) with 73% of the raw milk used by the Dairy being supplied by local farmers. The remaining 27% is the importation of milk.

Fisheries

In addition, there are nine secondary landing sites equipped with sheds. Information shows that there are approximately 20 tertiary sites which are open beaches with no sheds or vendor stalls.   

Fish sheds are located at: Half Moon Fort,  Read’s Bay, Paynes Bay, Pile Bay, Tent Bay, Consett Bay, Skeete’s Bay, Fergusson Yard and Martins Bay.

Other landing sites can be found at: Strouds bay, Shermans, Six Men’s, Burke’s Beach, Worthings, St. Lawrence, Dover, Silver Sands, Foul Bay and Crane

A gradual increase in the tonnage of fish landed over the past five years has resulted in an increase in the number of ice boats and improved fishing techniques.

The implementation of the Government’s agricultural development strategy is in the hands of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Barbados Agricultural Development Marketing Corporation (BADMC). The work of these organisations is supported by private sector groups, spearheaded by the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS).

Tourism

This vital sector continues to be the linchpin of the economy, being its main foreign exchange earner for a number of years. During 2000, a total of 545,027 long-stay visitors came to Barbados, an increase of 5.9% over 1999. For the same period, 533,278 cruise ship passengers, an increase of 23.2 % over 1999. Total tourist expenditure for the period was $1,414.6 million.

Mining and Quarrying

Traditionally, mining and quarrying have been of limited economic importance, contributing less than one percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The main inputs have been sand and aggregates for the road and building construction industry, and raw material for small scale brick manufacturing and cottage-type pottery industries.

In the early 1980’s the Government had investigations carried out to determine the island’s mineral resource potential. The results indicated the presence of energy minerals - petroleum and natural gas; and industrial minerals, limestone, sand, sandstone, clay and oceanic clays.

Limestone covers 370 km² of the island and the total reserves were estimated to be 30.0 10⁹ metric tonnes, although not all is available for mining. Average thickness of the deposit is 65m, while the thickest deposits, located in St. George and St. Philip valley are up to 130m. The limestone shows few impurities and is suitable for cement manufacturing, production of slaked lime, or use in the iron and steel industry and chemical industry.

Limestone has in some locations caused the formation, locally known as `soft stone’ which was traditionally used in the building industry to make blocks. Estimates indicate that there are 132.5 million tonnes of this soft stone in the Scotland District.

Sand for the building industry is mined mainly at Walker’s Sand Dune in St. Andrew. There is an estimated 16 million cubic metres in Walker’s Quarry but it is recommended that to prevent serious ecological damage only 10 million cubic metres should be mined.

The clay deposits are estimated at 111 million metric tonnes. All of this is located in the Scotland District with concentration at Morgan Lewis, Chalky Mount, Mount Hall, Turner’s Hall and Foster Hall. The main deposit of 77.8 million tonnes is at Morgan Lewis.

With the closure of the Mobil Oil Refinery in 1998, the local crude oil produced has been exported to Trinidad and an equivalent value of refined petroleum products imported by the Barbados National Oil Company Limited. Barbados no longer imports crude oil or reformate.

In 2001, households purchased 2.3 million cubic metres of natural gas for US$1.49 million. Commercial customers used 5.4 million cubic metres at a cost of US$3.3 million. Special industrial customer Barbados Light and Power Company Limited bought US$0.74 million in natural gas or 4.4 million cubic metres.

Industrial customer the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) consumed 0.82 million cubic metres of natural gas at a cost of US$0.13 million.