Adrian Frater and Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writers
Managing director of Worthy Park Estate in St. Catherine, Peter McConnell (right) in discussion with Dr. Richard Jones, managing director of Fred M. Jones Estate in St. Thomas, at yesterday's Gleaner Editors' Forum at the newspaper's corporate offices, central Kingston. - PHOTOS BY RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PLAYERS IN the local sugar sector are predicting that small cane farmers could be wiped out of the industry over the next three years, unless Government guarantees them a price at which they can survive.
According to the All-Island Cane Farmers' Association, there are 9,725 registered cane farmers across the island that could be affected.
Peter McConnell, managing director of Worthy Park Sugar Estate in St. Catherine, said during a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the company's central Kingston offices yesterday, that there was little chance these farmers would survive under the new European Union (EU) Sugar Protocol without Government protection. Worthy Park currently receives more than 100,000 tonnes of cane from some 2,500 small farmers.
"The future of small cane farmers in Jamaica could be non-existent in three years unless Government is going to come in and provide them with a reasonable price to ensure their survival," Mr. McConnell said. "Based on what I am seeing, I can guarantee you that they will be going out of business over the next few years."
Dr. Richard Jones, manager of Fred M. Jones Estate in St. Thomas, agreed the sugar price required more support from Government because of the coupled crises of reduction in export prices and the fuel demand. He said the Minimum Target Assistance needed is US$0.05 cents per pound to be added to the annual price of sugar.
"Molasses properly priced and traded will add to this pool," he said. "Proceeds from ethanol and co-generation should also be incorporated in the sugar price pool in the future as the price cuts get larger."
Dr. Jones also argued that more should be done to stabilise the sugar price. He said that, to do this, the Government must import sugar and use the proceeds from the US$0.05 cents sugar support to cut agricultural costs.
Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, who also spoke at the forum, confirmed the worst fears of sugar interests in Trelawny, who were hoping the Government would have a change of heart about taking the parish out of sugar.
"Trelawny is going to be taken out of sugar so there is no incentive that I could offer the cane farmers in that parish to stay in sugar," said Mr. Clarke.
He added, however, that, for those Trelawny farmers who wanted to stay in sugar, it would be in their best interest to work out suitable arrangements with the Frome Sugar Factory, in nearby Westmoreland, which is already taking cane from Trelawny.
POOR JOB ON GOV'T ESTATES
The minister said that state-owned sugar factories have been doing a poor job. "If you look at the productivity on the Government estates, it is disastrous," declared Mr. Clarke.
The Hampden Sugar Estate, one of the two sugar factories in Trelawny, was restructured under a Government initiative in 2003. That exercise saw the estate move away from sugar production and into the modernisation of its distillery. Two hundred of the estate's 1,300 hectares were also taken out of sugar and used for the production of mixed crops for the export market.
The plan to end sugar production in Trelawny has not gone down well with sugar interest and the political directorate there. Many fear the community, whose survival was totally dependent on sugar, will be wiped out unless Government changes its position on closing the parish's Long Pond Sugar Estate.
