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Ask Torontoist: First You Get The Sugar…

By John Semley

Ask Torontoist features questions posed by you, and answered by our elite team of specially trained investigative experts (also known as our staff). Send your questions to ask@torontoist.com.
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Reader David S. Crawford asks:

Though I assume the sugar boats at the Redpath Sugar Factory on Queens Quay arrive there in summer after going through the Seaway from Cuba, I see some in winter too. Where do they come from?


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Photo by diathesis from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Torontoist answers:

With the Saint Lawrence Seaway being closed in the winter—generally shutting down on the first of December, depending on weather conditions—it’s true that ship traffic on the Great Lakes grinds to a halt. But then what of these ships docked at Redpath? Where are they going?
Well we’re straight shooters here, so we’re not going to sugarcoat it: they’re not going anywhere. According to Nancy Gavin, Manager of Brand Development at Redpath Sugar Ltd., when the Seaway is open, ocean freighters bring raw sugar into the factory. The sugar is then transferred to “lakers,” freighters designed to traverse the Great Lakes. These lakers remain docked at Redpath in the winter months.
“The freighters just stay in the port because there’s no traffic within the Great Lakes in the winter,” Gavin explains. “We use them as our storage vessels in the wintertime.”
Another interesting point that arises in this question is the port-of-origin for the raw sugar cane that comes into Redpath. According to Gavin, very little of the sugar comes from Cuba, as people tend to assume. “Cuba doesn’t grow as much cane sugar as they used to, accounting for relatively little of the global production,” she says. “We get a lot of our sugar from Central America and South America, Brazil being the main one.” (And for any inquisitive foodies, no mention was made as to whether the raw sugar coming into Redpath came from sugar cane or sugar beet.)
So there you have it, short and sweet: The boats you see docked at Redpath in the winter just stay there. And most of the sugar comes from Brazil, not Cuba. Cane you dig it?
(Torontoist apologizes for all the sugar puns. But not really.)
Illustration by Sasha Plotnikova/Torontoist.

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Comments

  • Michael Chrisman

    All the raw sugar used at Redpath comes from sugar cane.

  • tapesonthefloor

    Sugar cane generally farmed on deforested Brazilian rainforest, to be exact.

  • http://undefined Curtis

    First you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women.

  • http://undefined tapesonthefloor

    To the Beemobile!

  • John Semley

    You mean your Chevy?

  • http://undefined tapesonthefloor

    …Yes.

  • http://undefined Global Urbanist

    Not unlike soy beans and corn generally farmed on deforested Canadian woodlands.

  • http://undefined Chester Pape

    I wish I could find the reference for this, in any case at present more of Canada is forested (around 45%) than at any time since measurements have been taken. Most of this is young growth.

  • http://undefined tapesonthefloor

    I would also like to add that I don’t put soy beans or corn in my coffee. I feel this is worth mentioning.

  • http://undefined s’rose

    I missed the doors open at the Redpath, so I am hoping someone can tell me if there really is a giant pile of sugar in the triangle building with the whale on it.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    Usually when you see a ship docked at Redpath (or elsewhere along the quay), you can look up its name on boatnerd.com and find out where it came from.

  • http://undefined Loozrboy
  • http://undefined Global Urbanist

    I was going by historical maps that show Southeastern Ontario as “dense woodland” or in this map link “Great Tract of Woodland”. Note this is a dense deciduous forest with more biomass density than the Boreal forests that cover most of the country.
    http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~4040~330018:A-Map-of-the-Province-of-Upper-Cana
    It’s hard to tell a Brazilian to stop converting forested landed to farm land when North Americans and Europeans already converted their woodlands to countryside. Maybe if we started re-foresting our most productive farmland it wouldn’t be as hypocritical.