Sugar estates divestment plan still on track - Gov't
Published:Wednesday | August 3, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Mark Titus, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Government has moved to assure the nation that the deal to divest Frome, Bernard Lodge and Monymusk sugar estates to COMPLANT International Sugar Industry Company Limited is still on track.
In a terse, one-sentence response to suggestions in yesterday's Gleaner from Cleveland Keddo, chairman of the Westmoreland and Hanover Cane Growers' Association, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said the handover of the sugar estates would still take place on August 15.
Keddo had charged that the Chinese-owned COMPLANT had been unaware of the challenges facing the sector, and suggested that the uneasiness could derail plans for the start to the 2011-2012 crop year, due for December.
Keddo also fingered COMPLANT's senior administrator, Francis He, as having expressed displeasure with the process.
However, the Chinese point man has rubbished these statements.
"We have (a) good relationship with (the) Jamaican Government, we have a good relation with all the people from the sugar industry. Not only farmers and manufacturers, but all the other players involved," He said.
All is well
The COMPLANT official also revealed that equipment to refurbish the Frome factory in Westmoreland would be arriving in September, and that he expected a smooth start to the crop season.
"Our schedule is in December for Frome, and everything is fine. We have no issue, no complaint," the Chinese executive explained. "The project is going very well and the shipment with goods to start refurbishing will be arriving by September."
COMPLANT signed a sale-and-purchase deal worth US$9 million last June, that would see the likely construction of a 200,000-tonne sugar refinery and ethanol plant, at a cost of US$221 million, as well as the ownership of 25 to 50 acres of the land immediately surrounding each facility.
The firm also leased some 30,000 hectares of cane lands for US$35 per hectare per annum, for a period of 50 years, renewable for another 25 years, and another US$11 billion is set aside for the rehabilitation of the fields.
"We are holding talks with them, and have met four times already," He said, when questioned about the relationship with the cane farmers. "We need the cane, but this must be done on market rules. It is very technical to explain, but we will continue to speak."
Some 95 per cent of the current staff is expected to remain, and the COMPLANT operation will seek to employ around 200 Jamaicans, in the first instance.
The Chinese will, for the time being, be part of the Sugar Industry Authority's pooling system, but they will also be seeking to market their own sugar in the long term.