Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
JAMES
WITH THE European Union (EU) planning to cut the price of sugar from the Caribbean and other Third World countries in less than a year, one sugar industry insider is calling on Government to make the industry more efficient by encouraging players to diversify their product.
Karl James, president of the Caribbean Sugar Association, made this call on Tuesday during his address to the Kiwanis Club of Kingston's luncheon at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.
Mr. James said major sugar-producing countries including Brazil have gone beyond yielding sugar and molasses from their cane. And with great success.
"We must have a multi-product approach," he said. "The Brazilians will tell you that you can't make money producing raw sugar and molasses both of which are raw material. You need to make refined sugar, you need to make ethanol, you need to do co-generation," Mr. James pointed out.
"When you do ethanol you produce yeast and other things from the same crop of cane rather than the traditional raw materials," he pointed out.
Ethanol has become a multi-billion dollar industry in countries such as the United States where the substance is drawn from agricultural products (like corn) to produce fuel.
Mr. James, who is also general manager of the Sugar Cane Producers Sales Limited, says these by-products would be prepared for the domestic and export markets. He is urging producers to start diversifying their products by the time the next crop is up for cutting in December.
"We need to get going now in the production of cane ... nobody needs to wait because it's a good time to plant," he explained. "Once you put in the cane you will have the growth and you will have the cane for the factory where you can determine what to do with it. But it must be done efficiently."
In June, the European Union announced that it would be abandoning the Sugar Protocol agreement it signed with countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and cut by 39 per cent prices to sugar producers from those regions.
The new regime takes effect in July 2006.
