​When the Dominican government's sugar authority, the Consejo Estatal del Azúcar (CEA), leased its ten operating mills to private consortiums in 1999 in a bid to escape insolvency, most of those deals failed within a few years and the mills closed permanently. Consorcio Azucarero Central, which took over the Ingenio Barahona mill in the country's southwest, was the exception — the only lease from that round that has remained continuously operational and viable ever since.

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CAC describes Ingenio Barahona as the most efficient sugar mill in the country measured by cane and sugar production per hectare, and the company is the dominant private-sector employer across three southern provinces: Barahona, Bahoruco, and Independencia.

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