Plantation Reserve Sugar A “Huge Success Story” – US$203,000 Per Month Sales (How Much Did Cricket World Cup Cost Us?)

The Nation News is featuring yet another story on the success of Barbados’ Plantation Reserve sugar. The brand is doing very well with volume of 20,000 tins sold last month at 5 UK pounds per tin… or about US$203,000. (see The Nation News Sweet Taste Of Success)

Keep in mind that is sales, not profits, folks. Even with a 50% profit margin (as if! – but lets be conservative) that would be say, US$100,000 profit per month.

But there is no way the profit margin is 50%.

The Nation News also mentions a single newspaper supplement article as being a huge success also, and they feature the cover of the newspaper supplement.

I guess no one at the Nation realises it was published months ago – or that the sub-title of the article is “Trouble in Paradise“ and that the article cannot be considered all positive.

Now let me see here… Take that US$100,000 profit per month (a huge over-estimation) divided into the cost of Cricket World Cup (say US$300 Million in the hole including that white elephant called Kensington Oval)…

Yup… the Plantation Reserve sugar profits will be able to pay for Cricket World Cup in, oh, say 250 years.

So Many New Companies, So Few Answers About Where Our Money Went… And Where It Will Go

UPDATED: November 9, 2010

The next time we have an election, I’d like to ask each BLP candidate if they, or any of their family members or friends, have a direct or indirect interest in any of the following companies…

ABC Project Corporation

Barbados Correction Corporation

Whitepark Development Ltd.

Hey… we’re only asking!

Feel free to add your comments and expand the list.

Original article published on October 3, 2007…

Total Barbados Debt Owed Or Guaranteed Exceeds 90% Of GDP!!!

What would you call parents who borrow money that their children – not the parents – will have to repay when they reach adulthood? Especially if the money was borrowed for depreciating assets like a fancy new BMW car or even to host a fabulous cricket party the likes of which will never be seen again?

When you are the government, you have two major options: a/ spend only what revenues you have, or b/ spend more than you have while unloading the increasing debt onto future generations of citizens and politicians.

The current government of Barbados continues to borrow and spend, spend and borrow even though they have already taken our national debt and indebtedness into the stratosphere. Even worse, our leaders have been creatively hiding debts and delaying payments so much so that many of our debts will not even become known to citizens until the current crop of politicians are safely sipping champagne at their new Swiss retirement homes.

New Companies Spring Up In The Middle Of The Night

As Patrick Hoyos points out in his article The Barbados government’s total guaranteed debt doubles in just two years much of our country’s debts are mysteriously owed to companies that spring up in the middle of the night. Companies whose sole purpose is to be paid vast sums of tax dollars far into the future.