The sugar campaign is in full swing in Guadeloupe where cane cultivation supports thousands of farms. In this archipelago of the French West Indies, about 90% of cane production is delivered to sugar factories, the rest to agricultural rum distilleries.
This year, the harvest almost did not start because of a disagreement over the price of a ton of cane, set every five years by an agreement signed by industrialists, agricultural unions and the State. To cultivate cane and meet international demand for sugar, planters had brought thousands of slaves to the West Indies in the seventeenth century.