Positive outlook for sugar crop
Published:Thursday | September 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
TWO OF THE leading players in the local sugar industry are expressing confidence that the sector can make good on the new price for the sweetener in the 2011-2012 crop year.
The Jamaica Cane Product Sales (JCPS), the company that markets local sugar under the pooling arrangement among producers, will earn €664.41 or US$936.98 per ton for the supply of 80,000 tonnes to British firm ED&F Man Sugar Limited.
"We expect that more cane will be available this year ... because we have been replanting in earnest," said Allan Rickards, chairman of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association.
"My projection is for 150 to 160 tonnes for the next year."
The contract also offers an option to supply an additional 20,000 tonnes - if the industry finds itself with surplus by February or March.
Plans are also in place to reserve sugar for sale to the local market, which pays US$900 per tonne and consume over 60,000 tonnes annually, while some 12,000 tonnes goes to the United States annually.
Ambassador Derrick Heaven, executive chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority, told The Gleaner that sector players are now in preparation mood.
"As you would expect, the sector is excited about the increased price, and from all indications, preparation is going well," he said. "The factories are gearing up and the farmers are seeking to plant more cane, because we must ensure that there is more sugar."
Local producers churned out a combined 139,000 tonnes of the sweetener across five of Jamaica's seven sugar estates during the 2010-2011 crop. This is an improvement on the 118,544 tonnes that were produced for 2009-2010 crop.
Three factories surpassed their projected targets for the year, and the remainder will have to increase their output.
Ambassador Heaven has attributed the achieved targets to an improved cane supply and better weather condition that allowed for less tonnes of cane to make more tonnes of sugar.
Appleton Estate in St Elizabeth closed its season with 31,033 tonnes - one tonne more than it had projected at the start of the season in January; St Catherine's Worthy Park has already surpassed its 20,000-tonne target and realised an output of approximately 23,000 tonnes.
The Golden Grove Sugar Company in St Thomas improved from a 10,000 tonnes per-crop-year facility, to produce some 18,000 tonnes. Frome in Westmoreland closed its season at 41,687 and Monymusk made 29,000 tonnes.
Worthy Park, Appleton and Golden Grove are said to be in excellent condition, while work is said to be on in earnest to refurbish the Hussey family-owned Everglades Farms, in preparation for the 2011-2012 crop year. Some US$3.6 million has reportedly been spent on factory repairs, and US$2.75 million on crop expansion, which translates into 1,208 acres of new cane plantings.
The Chinese-owned Pan Caribbean Sugar Company, the new owners of Monymusk and Frome estates, is awaiting equipment to do refurbishing work that is expected to be ready for the new crop in December.