John Myers Jr., Business Reporter
Jamaica's sugar exports to the European Union (EU) have increased by 3,538 tonnes, flowing from a redistribution within Caricom of the 15,590 tonnes that St. Kitts supplied under a preferential trade scheme.
Belize and Guyana got the bulk of the allocations, 6,331 and 5,721 tonnes, respectively.
Trinidad, which is considering whether to lock down its industry or privatise operations, was not included in the redistribution; neither was Barbados which has announced it is pulling back from bulk raw sugar export and exploring markets for branded or specialty sugars.
St. Kitts locked down its sugar sector in 2005, saying its factories could not operate viably under the 36 per cent price cut on EU sugar exports being phased over three years, 2006 to 2008.
Intervention
However, Jamaica was able to secure the additional quota only after the intervention of the Sugar Association of Caribbean (SAC), according to chairman of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJCFA), Allan Rickards.
Rickards said the EU was initially notified that the St. Kitts quota would be shared between Guyana and Belize.
"It was not a recommendation, it was not discussed at SAC and it was not discussed by the Caribbean ministers or heads," said Rickards. "It was just somebody's aberration."
The AIJCFA chairman said the potentially explosive situation was resolved after the Caricom Secretariat dispatched a quick letter to the EU indicating how the quota should be shared.
Karl James, general manager of Jamaica Cane Product Sales (JCPS) - the agency responsible for marketing Jamaica's sugar - said the increased allocation of 3,538 tonnes was included in the last shipment of "protocol sugar" last Wednesday.
He said a total of 127,000 tonnes of sugar has been exported from Jamaica to the EU this year.
Another 3,755 tonnes was shipped in advance from the last crop, but this amount, James told Wednesday Business, included exports to Trinidad and the Cte d'Ivoire, which experienced a shortfall in production this year.
On target
Another 7,000 tonnes will be shipped to the United States and 22,000 tonnes to Finland as complimentary quantity sugar. The JCPS head projects that Jamaica should earn approximately US$90 million ($6.12 billion) from sugar exports this year.
If James' estimate holds, it would mean flat performance for the sector whose export income in 2006 was US$90.3 million from 140,445 tonnes sold to all overseas markets.
For the current period, said the JCPS head, production is on target to allow Jamaica to meet all its commitments.
"I am hoping that they will get to the target of a 167,000 tonnes by the end of July," he said.
Frome, the largest factory located in Westmoreland, is the only one so far to have wrapped up production for the crop year.
"Frome made 53,000, which is about their projections and the others are still hoping to finish because they were delayed by the rain," said James.
Appleton, Worthy Park, Bernard Lodge, Monymusk, St. Thomas and Trelawny are still in production. Appleton and Worthy Park are privately-owned oeprations; the others, including Frome, are state-operated.
Workers employed to the Monymusk Estate in Clarendon remove overgrown weeds from a sugar cane field in June 2005. - File
New EU sugar quotas
| SAC member | Tonnes |
| Jamaica | 125,688 |
| Guyana | 166,523 |
| Belize | 46,680 |
| Trinidad | 43,751 |
| Barbados | 32,097 |
