Matthew Falloon, Staff ReporterTHE LEVEL of cane production required to support a sugar refinery is possible, according to leading players in the local cane farming community, although recent production results show no growth.
"The island, in my opinion, is able to produce 350,000 tonnes (of raw sugar) within three years," Chairman of the All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers' Association Abijah Buchanan said, echoing Minister of Agriculture Roger Clarke's sentiments that modernisation must play a crucial role in the revitalisation of the industry.
Minister Clarke stated on Thursday, at an industry conference in Ocho Rios, that a minimum of 300,000 tonnes was required to make a sugar refinery viable, and intimated that was an unlikely target on current record. This year's crop is the worst in over 50 years, standing at 175,252 tonnes of raw sugar.
In terms of recent cane production, instead of increasing on the 1996 total of 2,643,212 tonnes of cane, each year's figures since then are less, ranging from a deficit of 150,000 tonnes to this year's 1,988,519 tonnes.
"The world itself is moving towards mechanisation, we should not hesitate - we would be caught flat-footed if we do," Mr. Buchanan said. "I want to see a concerted approach. The old system worked in by gone days, but it is now outmoded."
Mr. Buchanan indicated that the days of the cane-cutter may be numbered, as the industry seeks to streamline itself and improve efficiency but he urged that changes be made gradually to lessen the impact. "It must be in a phased manner, because the workers must never be left out of the equation," he said. "We will have to find another job for him (the cane-cutter) to do."
Astill Sangster, Chairman of the West End Cane Farmers' Association, told The Gleaner yesterday that refining was a realistic possibility, in fact, a necessity.
"Our industry can't just depend on producing raw sugar for export," he said, pointing to the increasing competition in the world market. "We have to begin as an industry in Jamaica to look at variation in our industry. We have to go into refined sugar, and we have the markets for that, we have to broaden the alcohol market. We have to diversify."
The 300,000 tonne mark is not a pipe-dream, according to Mr. Sangster. "We have done more than that in the past," he said, but insisted that leadership in the industry must move swiftly and must include attention to the needs of the "average" farmer without whom, "there is no industry".
"It depends on those guiding the industry and what action they take," he said. "They have to move quickly, this year is a red letter year."
Jamaica Labour Party MP for North Central Clarendon and Bustamante Industrial Trade Union Vice-President Pearnel Charles agreed, warning the Government that "unless they take a decison to make an input in the industry to improve production and also to look at how they can gain in other value-added areas, then we wont have an industry".
"The Government has to take the decision whether or not investing in the industry in a peicemeal way makes any sense," he said. "To me it does not. The way they are doing it, will fail, the industry then fails, and the workers that they are trying to save will be lost."
He asserted that a move to mechanisation could mean more jobs in higher skilled fields and came out in support of any move to refining.
"I would support any by-product that will make the sugar industry a viable one," he said. "Because producing (raw) sugar alone is not viable in 2002. I would support some measure of mechanisation to increase output and train workers to go the second step."
Island supervisor of the National Workers' Union (NWU) Vincent Morrison conceded that streamlining and job losses were necessary for the future of the industry, but urged farmers to make a concerted effort to provide the raw material to make the industry efficient. Factory operating time dropped to 55.99% due in part to a shortage of cane, a figure that the Sugar Industry Research Institute's Derek Little and Joshua Jaddoo described in their 2002 Crop Review as "unacceptable".
"A smaller, leaner industry is better than no industry at all," he said. "I have no illusion that changes have to come to the industry for us to compete. We envisage a smaller industry but one that is more efficient where workers will be paid better."
According to Mr. Morrison, between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs will be lost in the production side of the industry from an existing estimated 12,000, as a result. This will compound losses already sustained that have already saw the production worker population in half.
"Labour has suffered tremendously," he said. "We have to put something in place."
However, the NWU head was confident that if farmers and estates improve on their production efforts, the industry will survive. "Both the farmers and the estates have failed to replant their fields," he said. "The factories have been put in a reasonable mechanical shape, but don't have the raw material. The farmers have to come back on board. Something is wrong if you are not meeting two-thirds of your demands."
