Sweet deal inked

Mark Titus, Staff Reporter

TANG JIANGUO, chairman of Chinese firm COMPLANT International Sugar Company Limited, the new owners of the Frome, Monymusk and Bernard Lodge estates, says his company will be seeking to maximise the use of local labour in day-to-day operations.

Speaking yesterday at a signing ceremony at Jamaica House, Tang said Chinese workers would only be brought in where necessary.

"As I said in my speech, we need to work closely with local engineers, technicians and labourers," he said in an interview with The Gleaner after putting pen to paper to seal the deal at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) yesterday.

Tang would not be drawn into the number of persons to be employed initially, stating that he was still working out the numbers.

New era of growth

In his comments at the signing, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the sugar industry was poised for a new era of growth and development not only in Jamaica, but also regionally.

"For a group of countries that have had such a long history of sugar production, it is almost a shame to know that we are importing a substantial part of the sugar that we consume," said the prime minister.

"We have an opportunity as well to move beyond the production of raw sugar into refining sugar," he added.

According to Golding, "There is only one refinery in the region and that refinery is not able to satisfy anywhere near the demand of CARICOM. Indeed, the last time I enquired, the survival of that refinery is itself questionable."

The Chinese company, under the Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe, can sell its sugar to Tate & Lyle to be refined in England, and will have access to the United States and CARICOM's 15 markets, Jamaica included.