Building a Better Jamaica

BY ALESIA EDWARDS Observer staff reporter edwardsa@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, February 15, 2010

Courtesy of Jamaica Observer

OCHO RIOS, St Ann -- The Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) Friday shipped the first of four shipments of sugar, produced primarily by state-run factories, as part of an agreement with Italian company, Eridania Suisse S A.

The shipment of approximately 19,800 metric tonnes sailed four weeks ahead of schedule from the Reynolds Pier here, from which three similar shipments are expected in March, April and July.

Under the contractual agreement with Eridania, the Government is committed to ship 79,000 tonnes of raw sugar to the Italian company, which has paid US$15 million as part-payment for sugar from Jamaica.

"We have an agreement where they gave us US$15-m as advanced partial payment in exchange for 79,000 tonnes of sugar, this represents the first of four shipments," Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told the Observer at dockside.

The SCJ is also expected to send two shipments of the product totalling approximately 12,000 tonnes to the United States, Tufton said, adding that about 50,000 tonnes of sugar would remain in Jamaica for local consumption.

"I am satisfied. The sugar looks good. We are on course to meeting the rest of the quantities that we are obligated to supply, we also have here in storage another 4,000 tonnes," Dr Tufton said. "We still have some challenges but we are making the progress that we hope to have made in order to meet the obligations that we have."

Meanwhile, general manager of the Sugar Company of Jamaica Holdings, John Gayle, said he believed the sugar was the best the factories had produced in recent years.

"This cargo is actually being shipped four weeks before the original scheduled shipping date," Gayle told the Observer, adding that the raw sugar was being shipped to a refinery in Europe.

"The Government-owned factories, namely Frome and Monymusk, have produced 19,337 tonnes of sugar or 97 per cent of the total cargo," Gayle said.

He explained that under the contractual terms between the two parties, the Government is guaranteed a minimum price of Euro335.20 per tonne of raw sugar.

For his part, head of the sugar divestment team, Aubyn Hill, said negotiations were ongoing with overseas companies for an agreement to be reached, similar to the one it entered into with Eridania, for about US$30-m to produce more sugar.

"While we are looking at this crop, we are in the process of negotiating almost double the amount of money to make a larger amount of sugar from the government estates, while we still work on the divestment," said Hill who was recently taken to task for charging a high consultancy fee to divest the sugar companies.