# Sugar Revived at Georgetown (c. 1980)

URL: https://allhistories.com/saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines/timeline/1980-sugar-revived-at-georgetown
Location: Georgetown, Saint Vincent
Themes: main-event

The closure of the Mount Bentinck sugar factory in 1962 had left Georgetown and the surrounding windward villages without their main employer, and Saint Vincent had to import the sugar it consumed. In the late 1970s Milton Cato's government, seeking to diversify away from bananas and reduce imports, decided to revive the industry under state ownership. Around 1980 the government resumed sugar cane cultivation and processing at Georgetown, re-employing former factory workers and planting cane on estates in the north-east. Sugar was intended mainly for the local market and for a rum distillery. The revival was welcomed in Georgetown, where many families had lost their livelihoods in 1962, but it struggled with high costs, small scale and damage from the 1979 eruption and hurricanes. The revival lasted only about five years before the state sugar operation was closed in the mid-1980s, a second blow to the Georgetown area that local writers remembered as "the Georgetown dream that died". Thereafter Saint Vincent's sugar industry effectively ended, though cane continued to be grown on a small scale for rum production. At this point in the timeline (1980), the Queen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was Elizabeth II (27 October 1979 – 8 September 2022); the Governor-General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was Sir Sydney Gun-Munro (27 October 1979 – 28 February 1985). Government: the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was Milton Cato (27 October 1979 – 30 July 1984).

## Why it matters
The short-lived revival was the last attempt to restore Saint Vincent's historic sugar industry.

Ruler at the Time: [Elizabeth II (1979–2022)](https://allhistories.com/saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines/rulers/elizabeth-ii-1979-2022)

Governor-General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Sir Sydney Gun-Munro
Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Milton Cato (Saint Vincent Labour Party (SVLP))

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Georgetown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown,_Saint_Vincent_and_the_Grenadines)
- [Searchlight — The Georgetown dream that died (2006)](https://www.searchlight.vc/features/2006/10/26/the-georgetown-dream-that-died)
- [Wikipedia — Economy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Saint_Vincent_and_the_Grenadines)
- [Wikipedia — Independent Nation (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Vincent_and_the_Grenadines)