THE GOVERNMENT has offered cane farmers a Christmas present of a multimillion dollar loan write-off, plus $150 million in new loans at reduced interest rates for replanting.
The offers delighted the 200 or so cane farmers attending the annual general meeting of the All-Island Cane Farmers Association yesterday at the George Lisle Centre, East Queen Street, Kingston. They even agreed to end their AGM without even looking at Matters Arising from the minutes of the last meeting, the financial statements or the audit report, the final issues on the agenda of the meeting, at the request of the president Abijah Buchanan.
Mr. Buchanan told the meeting that the offer gave the industry a chance at a new beginning and that was all that they had come to hear.
"We can now forego the matters arising, that we can go home...because it's good news and we can go home with joy in a we heart," Mr. Buchanan said. His resolution was only seconded before the meeting ended abruptly.
The good news was delivered by Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, yesterday morning. He told the meeting that the Government had decided to write-off millions of dollars owed by them for loans of $400 per ton of sugar which they were offered in 1997 to replant and improve production.
No figures of the total amount were officially available from the meeting, but The Gleaner learnt that the outstanding amount is over $600 million
Mr. Buchanan told The Gleaner after the meeting that although he had no available figure, he knew that at least 90 per cent of the loans were still outstanding.
Dr. Davies also announced that the Government is offering the farmers another $150 million in new replanting loans at 9 1/2 per cent interest, beginning in January.
Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke, who basked in the general approval of Dr. Davies' announcements, told the cane farmers that the Government did not intend to close down any sugar factory, a proposal contained in a recent task force report on the industry.
He said that Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's position on the proposal to close sugar factories was that unless there was a proposal, as well, on what would be put in its place he was not interested.
"I am committed, I know that we don't have to lock down any if we are producing in an efficient way," he said.
He admitted, however, that Trelawny had a problem as the two factories there were too small and too inefficient and the proposal was to have one central factory in the parish.
But, he said that the government would be careful in divesting sugar factories.
"We are not going to make the mistake again of taking the sugar industry and putting it into the hands of people and then you have to go back to take it back years after. This time if it is going into any hands, it is going to be final."
He said that the industry had come full circle.
"We delivered it to the workers one time, failed; We brought in foreign management, failed; We divest it, failed. We have taken it back as a government and what we are trying to do is put it on a right track and anybody who comes, must understand that there has to be both the commitment and the resources to make sure that it continues to be viable," he said.
In terms of cane roads, he said that some $8 million- $9 million was available to deal with cane roads, which would be concentrated in areas where the crop has started or is about to be started.
"We don't have to asphalt them. We can do minimal work on some of them, but the little money that is coming you've to manage it well and take it as far as you can," he said.
He said that the industry could no longer depend on just growing sugar. "We have to look into every area in which we can make money out of it."
He called on the farmers to begin their crop with a commitment to provide quality cane to the factories.
He said that in January a committee to oversee the disbursement of the $150 million loan will be put in place and warned that it would not pay for cane grown "on paper" as was the case in the past, but cane grown "in the ground."
