Location;Arecibo
Date Established: 1905​​
Date Ceased Operations: 1981
Annual Production Graph
Average Annual Production: 31,998 Tons
Best Production Year: 1949/53,246 Tons
Family Ownership: Roses, Georgetti
Corporate Ownership: Central Cambalache, Inc., PR Land Authority

 In 1841 Hacienda Cambalache was owned by Francisco Ulanga de Chavoni (1801-1860) who was married to Santos Figueroa.  Ulanga was a Spanish immigrant from Bilbao in the Basque Country who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1810 and established himself in Arecibo where he became a prominent citizen.

Ulanga established the first agricultural bank in Puerto Rico to provide financing for agricultural activities under the name Ulanga & Cia. in partnership with Spanish immigrant from Valle de Carranza in the Basque Country, Manuel Ortiz Latorre ( - 1856).  Ortiz Latorre was married to Josefita Tejada, the daughter of Juan Manuel Tejada ( -1856), owner of Hacienda San Juan Bautista de Monte Grande in Arecibo.  Both Ortiz Latorre and Tejada died as a result of the Cholera epidemic of 1856.​

Ulanga later established Casa Comercial Ulanga, a firm dedicated to the sale of agricultural supplies and equipment.  Casa Comercial Ulanga was located in the lower floor of his house in Arecibo built in 1850.  The house was included in the National Register of Historic Places.  ​After Ulanga's death in 1860, Hacienda Cambalache was acquired first by C. F. Storer & Cia. and then by Edmund Pavenstedt, owner of Central Los Caños.

In 1905 Central Cambalache, Inc. was established from the consolidation of Hacienda Cambalache with other haciendas in the area to wit;

• Hacienda Buena Vista (originally named Hacienda San Pedro) to the south, owned by Saint Croix born brothers Pedro (1805-1866) and Juan (1803- ) Watlington White

• Hacienda Las Claras also to the south but closer to the new mill, originally owned by Francisco Stuard and ca. 1877 by Fernando Fernandez Martinez Marqués de Las Claras

• Ingenio Santa Barbara to the north, acquired in 1889 by Spanish immigrants from Sóller Miguel and Antonio Roses Bisbal, owners of Roses & Cia. 

Its promoters were Spanish immigrant from Sóller Antonio Figueras Cerdá (1866-1933) and also Spanish immigrant from Sóller Andrés Oliver Roses (1871-1937), members of the firms Roses & Cia., Inc. and Sucs. Roses & Cia.

After the interim presidency of Manuel Gregorio Ledesma Figueroa (1869-1923), in September 1906 José Figueras was named Chairman of the Board of Directors and in 1907, Spanish immigrant from Sóller Luis Rubert Catalá (1854-1931) and Agustín Plá were added as Board Members.  An article in the Gaceta de Puerto Rico edition of May 9, 1906 states: "We are told that the company owner of the new Central Cambalache has acquired by puchase from the Sucn. Fernandez the Central Las Claras."  In 1910 Central Cambalache, Inc. paid $250,000 to acquire Central Oriente for its lands and sold its machinery to the newly established Central Alianza of the Oliver family.  

The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer edition of November 4, 1911 states: "Central Cambalache near Arecibo is a central that has had a phenomenally successful career since its inception about six years ago when a syndicate of local capitalists purchased some old machinery in Ponce, transported it to Arecibo, supplemented it with a fine Krajewski mill and crusher and began to make money."  Not verified but it may be the machinery purchased in Ponce may have been from Central Restaurada which closed down in 1903.

The article also states: "Unfortunately the business got too big for the management and the past crop was a big failure due entirely to want of experience and technical advice.  The $1,000 shares which had reached the market value of $2,000 in the San Juan Stock Exchange suddenly tumbled to about $1,400.  it is reported that Don Eduardo Georgetti has bought a large interest in this company and it is to be expected that he will see that in future competent advice is taken regarding the machinery.  The mistake is too frequently made in Porto Rico of purchasing new machinery without seeing that the rest of the factory is in proportion."

During the 1930s the main stockholders of Central Cambalache, Inc. were Spanish immigrant from the Basque town of Carranza José Matienzo Lezcano (1868-1951), Spanish immigrant from Fios, Asurias Angel Abarca Portilla (1888-1976) who also had ownership interest in Central Plata, José R. Oliver Aresti (1901-1973) the son of Andrés Oliver Roses, Spanish immigrant from Madrid Vitaliano Garcia Marazuela (1885-1973) and the son of Jose Matienzo Lezcano, Jose Matienzo Koch (1900-1970) who was married to Elvira Roses Denton the daughter of Miguel Roses Artau and Maria Adela Denton Storer and granddaughter of Miguel Roses Bisbal.  

Based on average annual production, Cambalache was at one time the fourth largest producing sugar mill on the island and in 1931 was the largest sugar mill on the north coast.  Throughout the years, it continued to acquire land for harvesting including haciendas San Francisco and La Vega from Sucn. Gregorio Ledesma and at one point owned approximately 10,000 acres, all dedicated to the growing of sugarcane.  It was one of the few locally owned sugar mills that had its own railroad system.  

The Land Law of Puerto Rico of 1941 was sponsored by the founder of the Popular Democratic Party in 1938 and Senator since 1932 Luis Muñoz Marín and backed by then Governor Rexford Guy Tugwell.  The Land law had five main titles: 

• Title I: Created the Land Authority to administer the programs established.

• Title II: Dealt with the financing of the land program.  Although the law allowed Federal Aid if same was offered, it relied on insular appropriations and borrowings.  The Land Authority was authorized to issue bonds of the people of Puerto Rico up to $5 million, the first funding was $2 million in 1941.

• Title III: Regulated Land acquisitions by authorising the Land Authority to institute legal proceedings for the expropriation of land in excess of 500 acres by non-natural persons and acquire without public auction all lands placed under receivership as a result of the 500 acre law convictions.

• Title IV: Established the Proportional Profit farm program which would rent 100 to 500 acre farms to willing farmers who would manage them on a fixed minimum salary and a profit sharing basis.

• Title V: This was the program for resettlement of the "agregado".  This was a program of plot distribution under which each "agregado" would receive in usufruct a "parcela" of up to 3 cuerdas for his house and small garden to augment his salary. 

In December 1941 the Land Authority made its first land acquisition when it paid $41,838 to purchase four hundred and eighty two cuerdas in Barrio Sabana Seca of Toa Baja from Manuel Gonzalez to relocate evacuees from land seized by the Navy for a military base.  The first acquisition made by the Land Authority from a corporate owner was in August 1943 when Central Cambalache, Inc. signed a consent decree to sell 9,519 cuerdas to the Land Authority for $1,593,365.  In 1945 The Land Authority acquired and began operating Central Cambalache.

Central Cambalache's downward production trend started as early as 1950, as opposed to the combined trend of all other thirty two sugar mills then operating which started in 1953.  The Land Authority continued its management of Central Cambalache until 1981 when it closed down for good. 

On October 28, 2002 the Puerto Rico Legislature approved measure 970 declaring the two smoke stacks, the boiler, the "structural" skeletons of the main buildings and the "batey" of Cambalache as Historical Monuments.  Despite this, most of the remains were demolished in 2010 by the government or under government approval. 

Today, part of the sugar mill grounds are being used by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.  The remains we could identify in the immediacies of the sugar mill are pictured below.