Lynford Simpson, Staff ReporterCONSUMERS COULD find themselves paying as much as $60 per kilo ($27 per pound) for refined sugar, the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA) said yesterday in confirming a steep increase in the price of the commodity.
Vinroy Whyte, finance manager at the SIA blamed the 35 per cent increase on recent movements in the rate of foreign exchange and costs associated with moving the commodity to the SIA's warehouse.
There has been a shortage of refined sugar for several months and, according to Mr. Whyte, whereas the authority was able to sell to distributors for $28,000 per metric tonne before the dearth, it was now costing the SIA $32,643 to get the commodity to its warehouse. This had pushed the selling price to distributors to $38,000 per metric tonne.
He pointed out that with storage and other costs, the SIA has had to reduce its margin by 60 per cent to keep down the price.
But whereas Brascoe Lee, National Democratic Movement (NDM) spokesman on Agriculture, had suggested the latest increase would result in "major negative effects" on manufacturers and consumers of products which contain sugar, Mr. Whyte stressed "to the processors and the manufacturers who use it to make things, it hasn't gone up".
He said there was a different price for manufacturers who were exempt from paying duties. On the other hand, the duty to distributors is about 120 per cent, Mr. Whyte said.
For the president of the Retailers Association, Wallace Campbell, the hike was hard to swallow.
"How in the name of God it (sugar) can go up 36 per cent when nothing else has gone up 36 per cent?" he asked. He suggested the commodity could be sourced at much cheaper prices. Jamaica buys refined sugar from countries like Brazil and Colombia.
On Monday, Mr. Lee expressed alarm at the 35 per cent increase in the price of refined sugar effective this week, and reiterated his call for the government to establish a broad-based commission of inquiry to deal with all aspects of the sugar industry. These include pricing, international marketing agreements, cost of production as well as implications for labour and investment. He warned that a hasty task force cannot be the answer.
The NDM spokesman was speaking against the background of the recent announcement by Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, that he would be putting together a special team to examine ways to reduce production costs and improve output in the industry.
At the time of the announcement, the Minister acknowledged there was very little time left in which to effect the reforms that were needed to make sugar competitive.
"The economic importance and social sensitivity of the sugar industry warrants the involvement of all agricultural, commercial and technical experts as well as all the country's political and workers interests in order to arrive at a nationally acceptable consensus," Mr. Lee said.
