Rickards blasts gov't over Chinese sugar offer

DUANVALE, Trelawny — Allan Rickards, the Chairman of the All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJFA), Allan Rickards has blasted the government for what he said was its failure to sign off on a US$30 million loan agreement with the Chinese government for the supply of equipment to the ailing sugar industry.

"We cannot plant (cane) without a tractor and him (Dr Christopher Tufton) can get $60 million of tractors for rice," Rickards told the scores of disgruntled cane farmers at an emergency meeting in the sugar cane growing area of Duanvale last Thursday.

Last Tuesday, the agriculture and fisheries ministry received equipment, valued at $60 million, from the People's Republic of China to aid in its rice production programme.

The equipment includes tractors, harvesters, wagons, boom sprayers and trucks.

Rickards told the farmers that just over three years ago, the Chinese government made an offer to supply $US30 million worth of equipment to the sugar sector, at interest rate of three per cent, repayable over a 13-year period.

But the Jamaica government, Rickards said, has refused to take up the offer.

He argued that successive governments continue to show scant regard for the sugar industry, which he said was vital to the economy.

"Which industry is more important that sugar?" he asked. Is it cassava?, is it rice? or is it because 7,000 of the people who deliver canes are small people?"

Dr Tufton however, told the Observer that although the interest rate for the loan was relatively "cheap" the government could not take up the offer based of fiscal constraints.

"The fact is that the loan has to be repaid and when considered in the context in an economy which is under serious financial strain, which has an IMF (International Monetary Fund) agreement where fiscal space is limited, guided by the ministry of finance and the Cabinet, priorities have to be given to how loans are approved and which ones get approved," he said.

Dr Tufton said that the sugar divestment programme being pursed by the government will enable the private sector to capitalise the sugar industry, which will be of benefit to the estates and the private farmers.

" It would definitely be an inconsistency if we were to secure loans while we are divesting to give the private sector the role that they really ought to be playing, in terms of private business," he said.

The cane farmers meeting was called to discuss a raft of issues said to be negatively impacting on the cultivation of the crop in the parishes of Trelawny and St James.

Among the issues discussed were the premature end of the 2009/2010 sugar crop at the Long Pond Sugar factory and the planned closure of same factory for one year.

source: jamaicaobserver