IF WE are to go by the views of the leading players in the sugar industry, nearly 10,000 small cane farmers across the island could be wiped out of the industry over the next three years. Their prediction is based on the fact that the European Union's new sugar regime, which includes a 36 per cent cut in the price for sugar beginning July this year, will make it impossible for them to survive. This can only be averted, they claim, if the Government offers some assistance by way of price support.
There is a sizeable number of persons who hold the opinion that the sugar industry has outlived its usefulness to the country and has become a burden on the taxpayer. They believe that as it continues to suffer losses year after year the Government, in coming to its rescue, is wasting scarce resources which could be put to better use. The EU's recent decision to cut the price it pays for our sugar is seen as the final nail in the coffin which suggests that we should be making preparations for its interment rather than attempting further injections.
We do not share those views. We believe that the sugar cane has played, and continues to play, a most valuable role in this country's social and economic development. Apart from the well over US$100 million export earnings each year from sugar and rum, its contribution to employment and rural development and stability is unquestioned. The potential for the development of additional products such as ethanol and electricity has, without doubt, positioned it at the top of the most valuable plants in this country.
The Government has gone on record in committing itself to the continuation of the sugar industry and to the production of ethanol. It cannot therefore ignore the plight of the small farmers who have been its backbone since it was abandoned by the planter class in the earlier part of the last century and again in the early '70s. At present, the farmers produce as much as 50 per cent of the canes used in the factories. It will require a great deal more cane for the additional production of ethanol and energy.
If the small farmers are allowed to be wiped out it would be the beginning of the end of the industry; that is, unless there is a massive injection of funds by the estates to acquire the additional 15,000 hectares of land needed to produce the cane required to meet market commitments. This too would require the Government's assistance on a much larger scale than what is requested for the small farmers.
It is for those reasons that we support the call for Government's assistance by way of price support to the small farmers. In the long run a lot more persons will benefit and it will be to the greater good of the country.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
