Genuinely Bajan

Barbados is the only coral island still producing sugar cane

Our sugar has always been grown, milled and loved in Barbados. And for good reason. Barbados is the natural home for the world’s finest sugar cane. The island’s temperate climate, beautiful sunshine, gentle trade winds and cooling rains have been crucial factors in creating the perfect conditions for growing sugar cane since the 1600s. Today, Barbados is the only coral island that continues to produce sugar cane and the results are exquisite.

When the unique terrain and warming sun have worked their magic, we select only the most exquisite sugar cane to produce the distinctive sparkling crystals of Plantation Reserve – the very best canes produce the highest purity cane juice.

Even the water used in sugar cane production contributes to the uniqueness and purity of Plantation Reserve sugar, having been naturally filtered through the island’s coral.

The result is our deeply aromatic natural cane sugar. You’ll notice the difference immediately. It has a flavour and texture that transforms everything you use it in. So whether you’re baking with it, putting the finishing touches on pancakes, flavouring desserts, or sweetening your coffee, Plantation Reserve will leave you saying ‘Oh yes, I want some more’.

So yes, our sugar is genuinely Bajan, because anything else just wouldn’t do.

Our Products from this unique island

How Plantation Reserve sugar is made

Traditionally Bajan

Through Bajan traditions our sugar has become part of the fabric of Barbados.

In fact, over centuries our sugar has become ingrained in the Bajan family’s traditional cooking. It’s celebrated at Crop Over. It adds a magical flavour to food and drink enjoyed on Independence Day, Christmas Day, Old Year’s Night and whenever people bake.

Over the years our sugar plantations have even helped to preserve the island’s traditional rural beauty. In some places the layer of soil is so thin that it hardly covers the underlying coral. However, when sugar cane is harvested the leaves are left in the fields to act as a mulch that protects the soil from erosion. According to The University of The West Indies, “The sugar cane landscape in Barbados provides the island with a range of highly advantageous ecosystem services including soil conservation, flood water regulation and scenic amenity.”

And that’s not all. Like us, visitors love Barbados. One of the reasons they come here is the island’s outstanding natural beauty, much of which, like our precious traditions, is preserved as a result of sugar farming. The cane preserves the island’s lush greenery and provides a backdrop to the picturesque plantation houses that are so attractive.

Yes, we help to preserve the traditions of Barbados. Making a positive and sustainable impact on the local economy, the sugar we produce and way we produce it will help to protect the island’s ecosystem for generations to come.

Responsibly Bajan

We don’t just produce the world’s finest cane sugar; the way that we produce it also has a positive and sustainable impact on the local economy.

Sugar cane has been central to the way of life in Barbados since the 1600s. It has helped to shape our landscape, our island and our economy. Today, Plantation Reserve is keeping that tradition alive with the production of fantastic Barbados sugar in a revitalised local industry.

We’re a joint venture operation between the Barbados Government (through the Barbados Agricultural Management Company Ltd) and the private sector. With the creation of a genuinely Bajan brand we are bringing the best of our sugar production to a worldwide audience in a way that boosts our island’s economy, preserves the environment and safeguards precious jobs. That brand is Plantation Reserve. Through it we are building a sustainable sugar industry and invite you to be part of it.

Every time you stock up on Plantation sugar you’re supporting our small local producers rather than putting money into the pockets of big multi-nationals. It takes a little more effort to produce the level of purity we demand of our sugar cane juice, but we think it’s worth it and hope you do too. Especially, when you realise this exceptional quality gives our genuinely Bajan brand the high export value that allows us to pay local sugar producers above typical market and Fairtrade prices. By promoting the self reliance of our independent farmers we – and you – can keep our traditional industry flourishing. So Plantation Reserve sugar doesn’t just taste great, it makes you feel great too.

This sustainable development model is working. By looking at sugar in a whole new way we’re able to offer genuinely superior sugar built on our production values and the natural attributes of the only coral island still producing sugar cane – Barbados.