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Does end of USA embargo of Cuba = end of Redpath Sugar on Queens Quay?

Admiral Beez

Admiral Beez

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"U.S. moves to end half-century embargo against Cuba"

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2...rican_alan_gross_after_5_years_in_prison.html

AIUI, one of the main reasons Red Path continues to exist on Queens Quay is that it processes sugar from Cuba, usually arriving on rusty ships with what appear to be Russian names. If Cuban sugar can be processed in the USA, there may be no point to Red Path's Queens Quay operations.

This was last looked at on UT in 2007, http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/archive/index.php/t-3434.html?

Thoughts?
 
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The trade embargo is still in place for the most part. Congress has to end that. What happened today is the return to full diplomatic relations and easier travel from the US to Cuba.
 
I doubt it will make any difference so long as ADM can keep paying off enough US politicians to keep tariffs in place that make it cheaper to sweeten with High Fructose Corn Syrup as opposed to cane sugar.
 
I think it will be gone sooner rather than later. They'll be able to process the sugar cheaper in Cuba or in the south (even now, lobbyists are writing bills to subsidize industries to take advantage of the opening to Cuba) and they can sell the Queen's Quay property for apartments.
 
Redpath refines raw sugar from Brazil. If they were looking at cutting costs by shifting production south, why wait for the embargo to be lifted? There are many developing countries in Latin America where you can refine sugar.

Importing cheap raw sugar and refining locally it for the large central Canadian and northeastern American markets doesn't seem like an unsustainable business model.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but as I understand the sugar for Redpath is Cane sugar from Brazil not Cuba. Furthermore, the US market for sugar is dominated by a mafia of sugar beet farmers. Cheaper cane sugar is kept out of the US market by the sugar beet lobby so this has little to do with Cuba and a lot to do with domestic American politics. If Cuban cane sugar is cheaper than Brazilian cane sugar, relaxation of US Cuba relations may actually be good for business for Redpath as long as the US keeps using sugar beet but allows Cuban sugar to be transported through it's waters (assuming this is a problem now)
 
W. K. Lis said:
There is no trade embargo between Canada and Cuba. It was the U.S. and Cuba in which there was an embargo.
Click to expand...

There were Canadians who actually thought there was a trade embargo between canada and Cuba?
 
No matter how some people justify it (jobs downtown etc), a sugar refinery sitting by our prime waterfront is a huge waste of space. It looks extremely hideous and takes too much space (2 city blocks?). Whoever thinks it is fine the way it's is just kidding himself. I'd rather have a giant parking lot than this smelly disgusting monolith.
 
yet the industries were there first, then the residential apartments were built decades later



ksun said:
No matter how some people justify it (jobs downtown etc), a sugar refinery sitting by our prime waterfront is a huge waste of space. It looks extremely hideous and takes too much space (2 city blocks?). Whoever thinks it is fine the way it's is just kidding himself. I'd rather have a giant parking lot than this smelly disgusting monolith.
Click to expand...
 
I've always rather liked the Redpath Refinery and its reminder of Toronto harbour's industrial past. I see no reason why it should have to relocate. It is neither smelly nor disgusting unless one considers honest hard work to be smelly and disgusting.

Last year in Havana, I met a man who had worked a few years ago on one of the sugar boats that supplied Redpath. He was quite dazzled by Toronto.
 
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