John Myers Jr, Senior Business Reporter

Chairman of the Jamaica Sugar Cane Growers' Association, Allan Rickards. - File

The Jamaica Sugar Cane Growers' Association (JSCGA) wants to tap into a government-backed US$30 million (J$2.16 billion) line of credit from the Chinese, funds earmarked for the purchasing of equipment to improve sugar-crop yields.

Allan Rickards, the chairman of JSCGA - formerly the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association - said the funds to be administered by the Sugar Industry Authority should be available for drawdown before the end of the next sugar crop.

The crop usually starts annually in December and end July.

Jamaica produced a disappointing 140,000 tonnes of sugar last crop from about two million tonnes of cane. Some 800,000 tonnes of the canes that fed the sugar mills were supplied by JSCGA members.

But sugar cane farmers see new opportunity for more business in the divested factories, which are in transition from government to private ownership under a US$25- million deal with Infinity BioEnergy.

Infinity will grow about 50 per cent of the 2.5 million tonnes of sugar cane it needs to produce sugar, molasses, ethanol and electricity by 2013 on some 31,000 hectares it will control.

The Brazilian company will be depending on private farmers like those who make up the JSCGA to supply the remaining 50 per cent.

The association is expanding the technical and other support to members - hence its lobby for consideration of financial assistance under the Chinese credit line - to boost the yield from their fields and meet the expanded demand from Infinity.

Rickards said the funds sought under the Chinese credit line were separate from a $400 million loan package being offered by the Government for expanding sugarcane production, but vital to the transformation of the industry that has been plagued by low productivity, inefficiencies and indebtedness.

"It is vitally important because can you imagine a situation where we are short of cane by nearly two million tonnes and we are unable to take off the crop in the cropping period because we don't have the equipment so to do?" said the JSGA chairman.

"If we were to start dipping into the cane expansion programme to buy equipment what we would have is equipment and no cane expansion... so this line of credit is complementary to the whole business about cane expansion."

He said the funds would be offered to farmers at an interest rate of about five per cent.

The JSGA is also lobbying the Government to remove the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on farm machinery and equipment, and for a rebate on the tax paid by farmers on diesel fuel.

Those two concessions, plus access to what is expected to be cheaper credit under the Chinese backed programme, Rickards said, would help farmers slice their production costs and improve efficiency.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com