Overview:
Haiti’s publicly-run Darbonne sugar enterprise, as soon as the most important supply of employment and a key provider for Léogâne and regional farmers, has been closed for a second time in its 42-year historical past since 2015. Officers say a revival plan is in progress. Nevertheless, most are skeptical, though individuals whose livelihoods relied on the sugar mill stay hopeful. Economists doubt the revival plan will succeed with out viable financing, accountability and sustainable agricultural help.
LÉOGÂNE, Haiti — The rusting gates and weed-filled courtyards of the Jean Léopold Dominique Sugar Manufacturing unit stand as a monument to Haiti’s industrial decline.
Recognized regionally because the Darbonne Sugar Manufacturing unit, the once-bustling sugar mill complicated— located about 21 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince— has been shuttered since 2015, devastating sugarcane farmers, distillers and distributors throughout Léogâne and past.
“The closure of the manufacturing unit killed Léogâne’s economic system and farmers’ livelihoods,” stated André Romulus, a contractor who spent a long time on the plant. “When it operated, the entire area had work. Now every little thing is silent.”
As soon as able to crushing 3,000 tons of sugarcane day by day, Darbonne was Haiti’s final main sugar manufacturing unit nonetheless working within the 2000s— following the development that noticed the nation’s industrial sugar mills shut down one after the other by way of the Nineties as a result of competitors from cheaper smuggled sugar. It employed over 1,400 individuals at its peak.
And it’s not nearly sugar manufacturing. The mill powered the native grid with bagasse, equipped cane syrup for the output of Haitian distilled alcoholic spirits referred to as clairin or kleren and supported an ecosystem of transporters, avenue distributors and farmers. The enterprise’s closure left not solely employees unemployed but in addition devastated a city traditionally referred to as Haiti’s capital of clairin, a staple of the native economic system.
A turbulent historical past, the collapse of sugarcane and clairin
Inaugurated in 1983 beneath then-dictator Jean-Claude “Child Doc” Duvalier, the manufacturing unit symbolized the state’s ambitions to industrialize agriculture and scale back dependency on imports. However like different state-owned industrial enterprises, it was introduced down by a mixture of financial liberalization, mismanagement and political instability.
In 1986, Finance Minister Leslie Delatour’s sweeping commerce reforms shuttered state-run sugar factories, paving the way in which for reasonable overseas imports. Within the Nineties, Haiti slashed tariffs on sugar to as little as 3%, making imported sugar far cheaper than native manufacturing. By the 2000s, Haiti was importing practically all of its sugar and rice, devastating farmers and factories alike.
Renamed in 1999 by President René Garcia Préval to honor slain journalist and agronomist Jean Léopold Dominique — who championed farmers’ rights and opposed ethanol imports — the manufacturing unit reopened on Jan. 25, 2001, with Cuban technical help.
“If they need the manufacturing unit to rise once more, the federal government should spend money on replanting cane within the hills and huge swathes of unused land. In the event that they do, the mill can grow to be sustainable and worthwhile.”
Gérald Succès, A contractor
Working with no transparency for practically 14 years, manufacturing by no means reached sustainable ranges. By 2015, after years of debt and shrinking cane harvests, operations ceased once more.
Hébert Docteur, one of many many agricultural administrators on the manufacturing unit through the years, stated the mill machine, which may crush 3,000 tons of sugarcane day by day, had all the time operated under its capability since opening.
“It crushed about 85,000 tons in its first yr and between 120,000 and 180,000 tons from the second yr onward,” the previous director informed The Haitian Instances.
The shutdown has had ripple results throughout Léogâne, the place generations of households lived off sugarcane. Fields within the Grande Rivière space and others as soon as lined in cane are actually overgrown, bought for housing, or transformed to different small-scale and subsistence crops.
“There have been a number of sugarcane fields right here. They now not exist,” Romulus stated in an interview with The Haitian Instances, pointing to the huge plain largely lined with concrete-roofed houses.
The loss additionally gutted clairin manufacturing, an important a part of Haiti’s cultural and financial life. Distillers who as soon as purchased syrup from Darbonne now scramble to supply it from Mirebalais within the Centre Division, now managed by gangs — when insecurity on the roads permits. Many small distilleries, often known as gildiv in Creole, have closed altogether.
Whereas large-scale industrial sugar manufacturing has halted, some artisanal manufacturing of sugar and its derivatives, like clairin and rapadou—a solidified caramel-flavored syrup blocks or cones usually wrapped in dried palm leaves— continues on small household farms.
“The syrup from Darbonne was cheaper and higher,” stated Delbrun Audry, a distiller and father of 5 who shut down his gildiv final yr.
“With out it, our livelihood disappeared in a single day.”
Others have turned to imported brown sugar instead, driving up prices.
Numbers that don’t add up: A revival plan — or one other mirage?
Officers acknowledge the manufacturing unit was working at a loss for years. Between 2002 and 2011, revenues averaged 31.7 million gourdes yearly or about $239,000 (USD), whereas bills exceeded 32.9 million gourdes or over $253,000. But the shortage of clear monetary information fuels skepticism.
“The Cubans saved many of the information, however no experiences have been printed,” stated Martenot-Nels Narcius, a technical supervisor concerned in revival efforts.
The manufacturing unit additionally suffered from political meddling, based on a senior official from the sugar mill’s supervising company—the Ministry of Agriculture, Pure Assets and Rural Growth (MARNDR) —who requested anonymity to talk freely. “Tons of have been employed beneath political stress. Many by no means labored a day. Patrons pushed for decrease costs. The system was unsustainable.”
Immediately, the principle entrance appears utterly dilapidated and unfastened goats and cows graze the place sugarcane carts as soon as rolled. But Narcius insists the Haitian authorities is getting ready a brand new revival plan, estimating it’s going to value not less than $5 million.
“We’re learning cane-growing capability, planning upkeep, and exploring public-private financing,” he informed The Haitian Instances.
Not everyone seems to be satisfied. “The plain is now not what it was,” stated Johanna Jean-Noël, a resident close to the plant.
“Land has been bought, homes constructed. Folks develop different crops. I doubt there’s sufficient sugarcane left for the mill to run once more.”
Others stay hopeful. “The state should spend money on replanting cane within the hills and unused land,” stated Gérald Succès, a long-time contractual employee. “In the event that they do, the manufacturing unit can dwell once more.”
“We’re learning sugarcane-growing capability, planning upkeep, and exploring public-private financing.”
Martenot-Nels Narcius, a technical supervisor
A number of well-known Haitian economists and agronomists specializing in economics refused to touch upon the federal government’s plan to reopen the sugar mill after being contacted by The Haitian Instances, citing an absence of adequate data.
Economist Kesner Pharel of Group Croissance S.A. stated that his agency had no details about this plant as a result of officers have by no means printed any of its monetary statements.
The issue runs deeper than one manufacturing unit
The talk over Darbonne displays Haiti’s broader financial struggles. Agriculture as soon as employed two-thirds of Haitians, however right this moment it contributes lower than 20% of the nation’s Gross Home Product (GDP), based on the World Financial institution. Haiti now imports over 80 % of its meals, leaving it susceptible to world value shocks.
As of late 2024 and early 2025, political and safety unrest continues to hurt agricultural output. A Mercy Corps report notes that gang violence is driving starvation and poverty to extreme ranges. The World Bank anticipates that Haiti’s GDP will proceed to shrink, following six consecutive years of financial decline.
Sugar, as soon as the spine of the Haitian economic system since colonial instances, has just about disappeared. With the collapse of factories from the south to the north, home manufacturing has given approach virtually completely to imports. In the meantime, insecurity, land grabs and lack of state help proceed to push farmers out of manufacturing.
Haiti doesn’t have any main functioning sugar mills right this moment, regardless of a number of large-scale mills having operated there previously. The nation’s largest sugar manufacturing unit, the Haitian-American Sugar Firm (HASCO), closed in 1987. HASCO’s closure was adopted by a wave of shutdowns in Les Cayes, Saint-Marc, amongst different locations—together with Darbonne.
“The autumn of Darbonne [sugar factory] is the story of Haiti’s economic system — disinvestment, mismanagement, and dependency,” Frantz Charles, an agricultural economist, stated.
“Whether it is revived, authorities should not repeat the errors of the previous.”