Jamaican Sugar Workers taking a break from the searing sun in an   Jamaican Sugar Workers taking a break from the searing sun in an old sugar transport hut. Caymanas Sugar Estate, St Catherine Jamaica 2003. After Jamaica gained independence in 1962, sugar cane estates in Jamaica employed 50,000 people. But a combination of privatisation, and the end of EU quotas combined with the closure of estates has hit the Jamaican sugar industry hard over the last 20 years. In 2003 I had the opportunity of photographing the burning and harvesting of the sugar cane on the Government owned Caymanas Estate. Using outdated equipment and sugar largely cut by hand in the searing heat, workers make up a substantial number of voters. So successive Jamaican governments have made every effort to keep the industry going. Today, the island economy relies mostly on agriculture and tourism industries. The sugar industry is the oldest continually operating industry in Jamaica, generating the third largest foreign exchange for the island.