Sugar cane industry hit by hurricanes, slumping prices

In the sugar cane fields of Lafourche Parish, four generations of the Gravois family wait to see what this year's harvest will yield.

"It's been a good living for us, but it's tough. They got ups and downs, but that's all we know is sugar," said sugar cane farmer Bobby Gravois.

Sugar cane is a crop that has faced a number of setbacks this year. Back-to-back Hurricanes Gustav and Ike caused $87 million dollars in damages to the sugar production industry, according to the LSU Agricultural Center.

The sugar cane industry contributes an estimated $2 billion a year to the state's economy.

"These storms, you know, they come at a bad time of the year, when the cane is tall and erect and beautiful and knocks it down -- it's disgusting to it in that way," Gravois said.

Lafourche Sugars in particular is feeling the effects.

"We're almost at the point where we're going to put our farmers into extinction," said Greg Nolan, general manager of Lafourche Sugars.

Nolan says that beyond mother nature, other factors are also hitting the sugar industry hard.

"Fertilizer costs have increased. Fuel costs are out of the box. Labor is steadily increasing. Yet we still have trouble maintaining a price," Nolan said.

That price sits at around 21 cents a pound, a number very close to what sugar cane farmers say they were getting paid 20 years ago. Ideally they say they would like to see a price closer to 24 cents a pound.

"The industry itself is facing a pretty big crunch, like most farmers throughout the united states," Nolan said.

Growers blame foreign sugar imports for helping drive the price of sugar down.

For Bobby Gravois a simple solution would have the government tax those sugar imports, or bring them down to a lower level.

"We can't even support enough sugar for the U.S., but yet, we importing plenty of sugar. That's not too good for the local people."