Haile A. Clacken, Gleaner WriterAppleton, St. Elizabeth:
THE APPLETON sugar factory in St. Elizabeth has lost approximately $100 million from the fallout in production which resulted from a series of industrial action by field workers since the start of the 2005 crop year, Ian Maxwell, the company's chief executive officer, said.
What was forecast to be a sweet harvest season with concessionary global prices and a trickle-down bounty to cane farmers went sour at the mills.
Mr. Maxwell, in an interview with Farmers Weekly, said the loss was not only significant for the company, but for Jamaica, too.
"This year, it appears we will get the best price ever, so it is a big loss to the country. Also,
there might be a change in the EU (european Union) sugar regime in the next couple of years, where there might be a possible decrease in the price of sugar ... and so if we don't fulfil our sugar quota to the EU this year, we can lose it," Mr. Maxwell explained.
The EU, he said, has agreed to a quota of 137,000 tonnes of sugar at a price of $34,000 per ton.
Facing an historic fourth strike since the beginning of this year, Appleton has fallen short of 750 tonnes of sugar. The latest stalemate between the workers and the management of the sugar factory ended on Tuesday when workers went back on the job after 11 days of industrial action. This has come as a huge blow, not only to the company and the industry, but also to the small cane farmers who are finding the losses hard to bear.
The halt in production at Appleton left many small farmers without a market to sell their cane.
Walton Chambers, chairman for the north-east St. Elizabeth Cane Farmers Association, said, "It is a grave thing for the farmers to get over that loss. Some of the farmers, it was their only income, it is only that they were depending on and to see it go like this ... it hurts."
The small cane farmers have themselves had to bear the brunt of the strike, after having to battle the effects of the hurricane and the current drought.
The farmers together have lost approximately 625 tonnes of cane worth an estimated $1 million.
