Richard Morais, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
PLANS ARE well advanced to build a new sugar factory complex in western Jamaica that will serve the sugarcane growing areas of Trelawny and St. James. The final hurdle being is to present the project to the Planning Institute of Jamaica for detail consideration.
Making the announcement at the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Falmouth last Tuesday, Corporate Affairs Consultant to the All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJCFA), Allan Rickards, disclosed that the new factory complex will produce refined sugar, rum, industrial alcohol and a number of other products such as yeast, vinegar, methane gas, and dry ice.
The US$100 million project, which will also co-generate electricity for its own use and for sale to the national grid, will be implemented by two US companies, both with over 80 years experience in sugar factory design, construction, rehabilitation, as well as the agricultural side of the industry. The companies, Arkel Limited of Louisiana and Inter-American Transport Equipment Linseed of Florida, in conjunction with the AIJCFA have already held discussions with Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke who had announced the project at a special meeting of cane farmers in Falmouth earlier this year.
The pending closure of the Long Pond and Hampden sugar factories will be delayed as they will be kept operational during the period of construction of the new factory. Speculated to be built in the Martha Brea area of Trelawny, the new factory will be the most modern of its kind in the world and is projected to produce the raw sugar requirement to refine 70,000 tonnes of sugar annually in the beginning of operation.
Jamaica currently imports all of the 70,000 tonnes of refined sugar consumed annually. The consumption in the CARICOM region is approximately 150,000 tonnes of refined sugar and with Jamaica and Trinidad producing 75 per cent of the requirement of the region a Common External Tariff (CET) will effectively protect regional producers from outside competition.
According to Mr. Rickards, the new sugar complex will produce both raw sugar and the refined end products efficiently to stand up to competition on the open market. With the co-generation of electricity and the manufacture of by-products viability will be achieved in the short term.
