The abandoned sugar factory at Hampden, which was closed down last December is to be part of the heritage/eco-tourism tours, a componenet of the re-development programme for the estate. -Patrick Campbell photoErica James-King, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
PLAYERS IN the sugar industry are forecasting that the $370 million redevelopment programme at Hampden Estates will bring back substantial buoyancy into the industry. This is despite registering the lowest sugar production in 60 years in the last crop.
Hampden Estates in Trelawny was closed down on Friday,
forcing 450 employees to join the unemployment line. The redevelopment at Hampden will kick off, when the estate opens its doors as a multi-crop complex in mid-September. Only 150 workers will be re-employed on a phased basis.
"The selection of the new workers has not yet been complete, but we will be bringing the people back on a phased basis in mid-September," Livingston Morrison, chief executive officer of the Sugar Company of Jamaica told The Sunday Gleaner. "Work at Hampden will start in earnest during the last two weeks in September after intensive training of workers to ensure they are multi-skilled."
The multi-million redevelopment project is to include the refurbishing and modernising of the distillery, construction of a bottling plant, the planting of 1,300 hectares of sugar cane, cultivation of 200 hectares of mixed crops including vegetables, fruits and ground provisions, and the development of the estate as a eco-tourism attraction.
Funding for the programme is being sourced from a consortium of European bankers by way of the KBC Working Capital loan.
"Funding has already been tied down and some became available a few weeks ago," Mr. Morrison said. A breakdown of the figures shows $115 million will be channelled into replanting of sugar cane, $163 million for retooling and mechanisation and $91 million for redundancy payments.
The Agriculture Ministry and the hierarchy of the SCJ are upbeat about the redevelopment project. They note that Hampden has been performing dismally owing to inefficiency and poor yields, but they insist that the new-look Hampden will be technology-driven and will be redesigned to ensure maximum productivity.
However, the restructuring of the farm has been greeted with cautious optimism by the unions and the All-Island Cane Farmers Association.
Both the University and Allied Workers Union and National Workers Union which represents workers in the sugar industry, welcome the adjustments to boost efficiency at that estate.
"While we are not comfortable with the scores of jobs that have been lost, we believe any steps to significantly boost efficiency in the industry will benefit Jamaica in the long-run," argued Aston Johnson, Union Organizer with the UAWU, which had representational rights for the workers at Hampden.
As for the communities in Trelawny and St. James which are in close proximity to Hampden, they are disappointed that the new plan for the estate does not contain sugar manufacturing and consequently fewer job opportunities for them.
Some, however, welcome the planned alterations at the company. Take the case of 73-year-old Berris Pottinger who has been employed to the company for some 40 years and worked at the distillery.
"This is not the Hampden I use to know. It has deteriorated and has become so run-down that it really cannot give quality performance in its present state," declared the elderly man. "Only if they fix up the place and put in modern machinery can production be better here."
Meanwhile, the residents of Dumfries and Bounty Hall are critical of some aspects of the latest plan, saying that it will short-change the people of the communities bordering Hampden that have relied on that sugar estate for years.
"All the people around here know is sugar, they work on the estate, weeding and cutting cane and in the factory. Some grow cane to sell to the estate. How can they put their life back together if the sugar factory remains closed," questioned a shopkeeper from Dumfries.
