John Myers Jr., Agriculture Coordinator
An elevated view of acres of lands still under sugar cane in St. Kitts and Nevis. - PHOTO BY JOHN MYERS
LIKE JAMAICA, St. Kitts and Nevis has grown sugar cane for more than 300 years, but persistent losses and an uncontrollable debt situation pushed the Government to close the industry on July 23 last year, displacing a large portion of the country's labour force.
When compared to Jamaica, however, St. Kitts' industry employed fewer persons and used trains to transport cane from the field to one main factory the St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC). Nonetheless, both industries shared some similarities in that the St. Kitts sugar industry had been plagued by inefficiencies and indebtedness.
Cedric Liburd, St. Kitts' Minister of Land, Housing and Agriculture said the industry could no longer be sustained, as it was losing in excess of EC$30 million annually and had a mounting debt of EC$350 million at the time of closure.
Before the closure, however, the Government commissioned a study to guide them on how to proceed on closing the industry and identify measures for life after sugar. On completion of the study it was recommended that the Government:
Establish a sub-committee to plan for the future use of the cane lands.
Find a suitable solution to settle the debt for the St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC).
Close the sugar industry after the 2003 crop.
Examine possibilities for co-generation and non-sugar agriculture.
To allow for a smooth transition out of sugar, the Government decided on a severance package for all workers. Those who had 20 years and more were given an ex-gratia payment, including those who stopped working up to two years before the closure. The payment was made in three tranches.
"What we have done is to structure the payment to assist the workers and also to help them to manage their monies," Mr. Liburd said.
Mr. Liburd estimates that his government will spend some EC$39 million to compensate and retrain the displaced sugar workers. Those being retrained are given a stipend of EC$250 per week for the duration of the exercise.
RETOOLING WORKERS
A transition office, headed by Gordon Alert - a former director of the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) - was established to retrain and retool the displaced sugar workers for re-entry into other areas of employment. Areas in which workers are being retrained include: plumbing, air condi-tioning and refrigeration, art and craft, small business management and construction.
Mr. Alert said selected groups across the island were currently being trained with the skills necessary to develop various income-generating projects in the communities across the island.
"We have now started to run some practical training (pro-grammes) in the community centres," he said. "We are looking at running several other types of training that are going to define how they are engaged in the tourism sector."
He said some workers were being trained to make craft items for the tourism industry. "They have actually started selling their craft in Basseterre," he said.
