Jamaica seeking buyer for ailing sugar estates

KINGSTON: Jamaica is aggressively seeking a buyer for its debt-swamped sugar company after the global financial crisis forced a Brazilian company to drop out of a multimillion-dollar deal for the plantations, a top official said Tuesday.

Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton told reporters that the government has renewed bidding for its sugar estates and that 14 companies were "showing interest." He did not identify the bidders, but said most were international companies.

"We plan to engage each potential investor and hope to move as quickly as possible to get a buyer," said Tufton, adding there was no firm deadline to sell off the state-owned industry.

Factories of The Sugar Company of Jamaica have lost $283 million since the island's government bought them in 1998. The government announced plans to sell the company in 2004 after years of amassing debt and gave a June 2008 deadline.

Last year, Brazilian company Infinity Bio-Energy signed a $39 million agreement to lease Jamaica's sugar plantations for 25 years to produce up to 36 million gallons (135 million liters) of ethanol by 2013. Sugarcane production was expected to double to 2.5 million tons (2 million metric tons) as a result.

But Infinity backed out of the deal in late January after missing two payment deadlines.

Jamaica's December-through-June sugar crop is projected at 165,000 tons (150,000 metric tons), of which 153,400 tons (140,000 metric tons) would be shipped to Britain by season's end. Most of the remaining sugar would be sold to the U.S.

Tufton said the government cannot afford to operate the sugar estates on a long-term basis given the ongoing economic crisis. The government also has warned it might not have enough money to keep buying sugarcane from farmers after the season is over.

Other Caribbean nations, such as St. Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago, have shut down their centuries-old sugar industries.

source: iht