Sugar industry of Mauritius

Slavery was gradually abolished over several years after 1833, and the planters ultimately received two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves, who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation.

The rising middle class (made up of doctors, lawyers, and teachers) began to challenge the political power of the sugar cane landowners.

Dr. Eugène Laurent, mayor of Port Louis, was the leader of this new group; his party, Action Libérale, demanded that more people should be allowed to vote in the elections.

Action Libérale was opposed by the Parti de l'Ordre, led by Henri Leclézio, the most influential of the sugar magnates.

Independence came in 1968, since when the economy has great diversified, with in 2019 raw sugar representing only 7.8 of exports, far less than textiles and clothing, and a good deal less than fish products.

Under Governor Roelof Deodati (1692 -1703), the production of sugar was successfully extended with the arrival of a surgeon, Jean Boekelberg on board the ship Standvastighied.

The planters received a compensation of two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves, who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation.

The number of Mauritius Sugar Mills grew, as did their efficiency with the introduction of new technology, as competition became fierce.

In May 1997, the government produced a plan to rationalise the sugar sector by centralising production around fewer mills and offering an accompanying package to employees and planters.

"Scholars increasingly agree that the ‘Mauritian Miracle’ was enabled by the country's significant level of state capacity.

"[17] Since independence, the so-called "Mauritian Miracle”[18] and the “success of Africa” (Romer, 1992; Frankel, 2010; Stiglitz, 2011) was partially based in state reforms since 1825 when sugar factory owners within the Sugar industry of Mauritius pressured colonial officials to:- These efforts collectively assisted the island's initial growth as a monoculture-based economy but also laid the pillars of multiethnic social stability that anchored and then powered the country's successful economic diversification after independence.