The cash-strapped Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) is to carry out a management shake-up as part of efforts to maximise efficiency and output as the Ministry of Finance pumps in $600 million to help it prepare for the 2006/07 harvesting crop.

Agriculture and Lands Minister Roger Clarke told Farmers Weekly that the funds from the Finance Ministry would allow the embattled state-owned entity to effect the necessary repairs and acquire equipment for the preparation for the coming sugar crop.

Mr. Clarke, under whose portfolio the island's sugar industry was returned last year, said a number of changes would be made to the management structure to allow for an improved system at the five sugar factories under the Government's control. "The management structure has been re-organised, we are more focused now on people (being) on the base," he explained.

The Agriculture and Lands Minister explained further that where there were instances of one manager being put in charge of two or more sugar factories, "but we have brought it down to a situation where each estate is under the responsibility of an individual."

Funds from finance ministry

Mr. Clarke said the SCJ also received $1.7 billion from the Finance Ministry towards settling a $2 billion operating deficit incurred as a result of a highly-inefficient production system which produces sugar mainly to satisfy export commitments.

The changes come just two months after Dr. Richard Harrison, the former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, being appointed the chief executive officer of the SCJ, and Robert Levy, president of the Jamaica Broilers Group, being appointed the chairman in August.

This is after Livingstone Morrison, who was the chief executive officer, resigned following a dismal sugar crop, which saw the state-owned factories producing less than 150,000 tonnes of sugar. Derick Latibeaudiere, the governor of the Bank of Jamaica and the then chairman of SCJ, also resigned.

With the EU cutting the price paid for sugar coming from Jamaica and other ACP countries by 36 per cent over four years, it has become a priority for the government to streamline the operations of the sugar industry.

One way it has chosen to effect the necessary changes is to woo private investors to lead the charge in transforming to a sugar cane-based industry where ethanol would be the primary product.

The Frome sugar factory in Westmoreland is slated to start production on December 7. The others are expected to start by the second week of January 2007.