Aside from kapeng barako or brewed coffee, Batangas is know for having a vast sugar cane plantation, especially in Nasugbu Batangas. Sugar is considered as a major industry, in which the municipality of Nasugbu ranked 2nd place after the Haciend Luisita in Tarlac.

Central Azucarera Deon Pedro is the current largest sugar producing company located in Nasugbu Batangas. It is able to provide the refined sugar requirements of traders and industrial cusotomers such as multinational food and beverage and pharmaceutical companies in Luzon.

The company is under the new name Roxas Holdings who was just recently reorganized towards new investment. The Roxas patriarch, Don Pedro Roxas is a Spanish who was once considered as one of the richest man in the Philippines in the 19th century. The company is now under the management of Antonio Roxas who is 65 years old.

Brief History

After the Jesuits' departure 140 years later, vast haciendas of Nasugbu, Lian and Calatagan were leased by the King of Spain to Don Fernando de Araya, a Spaniard. Upon the expiration of the lease, the Nasugbu Estate was sold by the King to the Isaac family, the head of which was a Spanish mestizo.

When Isaac died, his widow Isabela sold the estate to Don Jose Bonifacio Roxas, also a Spanish mestizo, in the 1830's. Don Jose foresaw the commercial potential of sugar cane and planted large areas of the estate to produce it. His only son, Don Pedro Pablo Roxas, managed the estate during the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution.

Don Pedro's son, Don Antonio Roxas saw the need for a modern milling plant for centrifugal sugar. A sugar mill was thus constructed in 1912 in the barrio of Looc, which was transferred in 1920 to Sitio Campo. That mill, named after Don Pedro, was transferred to Barrio Lumbangan where it has since grown to become the Philippines' largest manufacturer of refined sugar. Central Azucarera Don Pedro (CADP) has continued to be a dominant presence in Nasugbu.

It has also donated the lands on which now stand the Plaza de Roxas, the town plaza; the church of the parish of St. Francis Xavier; and the munisipyo (municipal building).