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 [email protected].

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?

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.