SIMON

Coffee farmers are accusing the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands of back-tracking on an original promise to provide them with more than the $85 million offered as interim insurance payment pending the outcome of the court battle with the liquidators of the collapsed Dyoll Insurance Company.

According to Derrick Simon, representative for the Blue Mountain coffee farmers, the Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Roger Clarke, had originally promised to provide farmers with $180 million. However, he said it turned out that the ministry settled for much less than the farmers originally expected.

"He (the minister) promised $180 million and then he said the money would have been delivered to the Coffee Board on the 28th of July ... for payment by the end of August," he told Farmers Weekly on Monday. "But when the end of August came, the coffee farmers who were expecting the $180 million to be distributed among them, they heard that the money dropped to $85 million so there was a shortfall of $95 million," Mr. Simon explained.

Significant impact

This, he argued, has had a significant impact on plans by farmers to rehabilitate their coffee holdings.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr. Clarke were unsuccessful as he was said to be off the island and would not return until this evening.

Mr. Simon said some farmers received payment while others got nothing due to either lack of information or they were not qualified for any payment at all.

Stormed the office

On Monday, several coffee farmers stormed the office of the Coffee Industry Board in Kingston to register their dissatisfaction with the interim payment from Government. The interim payment represents about 45 per cent of the insurance claim farmers stand to get if successful with the court case.

Mr. Simon complained that as much as 40 per cent of the almost 6,000 claims has been referred for appeal as there were discrepances with the method of computation used to determine the amount of money each farmer received.