Divestment woes, culture clash at Frome

Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:While the relationship between the Pan Caribbean Sugar Company (PCSC), the Chinese owners of the Frome Sugar Factory, and cane suppliers in Westmoreland remains tumultuous at best, stakeholders in the parish say divesting the historic factory was a good thing.

"We did not have a choice," the Reverend Hartley Perrin, the custos rotulorum of Westmoreland, told the recent Gleaner's 'State of the Capital' Editors' Forum in Savanna-la-Mar. "It is not as if we had the Indians or people from the USA or other places interested. They were the only ones."

The PCSC, a subsidiary of the Chinese entity COMPLANT International, purchased the Frome, Monymusk, and Bernard Lodge sugar estates in a 2010 divestment deal with the Government, which earned US$9 million for Jamaica.

Following their purchase of the Frome factory, the Chinese went on to invest an estimated US$156 million to renovate the factories. In addition, substantial work was done to improve sugar production in the various cane belts under their control.

However, on account of changes the Chinese have made to suit their business model and other factors such as the clash of culture with their Jamaican suppliers, acrimony has become a feature of operations at the estate.

"They are about wealth maximisation. Our social issues were never a part of their plan," said Pius Lacon, chairman of the Westmoreland Parish Development Committee. "The Chinese are here mainly as business people."

In the three years since the PCSC has become involved in local sugar production, the Chinese have not endeared themselves to local sugar interests as their non-traditional methods run counter to what the local farming groups had become accustomed to under government ownership.

The relationship between the Chinese and the locals got so frosty in the first two years following the divestment that then CEO, Francis He, who many saw as uncompromising, was replaced by Dr Huaixiang Wu, who is reportedly more accustomed to local practices.

"I believe the introduction of new management provides an opportunity for an improved working relationship between both parties," said Perrin, a cane farmer and present board member of SCJ Holdings Limited, which led the divestment process on behalf of the Jamaican Government.

However, while Wu has announced an additional $1.6 billion of new investment over the next three years, many believe he has been too slow in making changes to some of the unpopular business decisions by his predecessor, hence the current state of unrest at the factory.

"The kind of social infrastructure that is usually in place is non-existent, and so it has caused a level of social displacement around those communities in the vicinity of the factory," said the Reverend Carlton Wilson, the chairman of the Westmoreland Ministers Fraternal, "and I think if it was not for the European Union provisions to the sugar workers and the farmers, I think the situation would have been worse."