JCFA presses for Cocoa Board membership

Further, the lobby said it was concerned about the divestment of the Cocoa Board assets “from which process the JCFA has also been excluded”.

The statement comes amid a change of administration, which usually means a reconstitution of public boards and review of policies.

“To date, we have only been informally told that these assets will be put up for divestment during this year, with no schedule as to what is to be divested and when specifically this is to occur,” said JCFA President Clayton Williams.

“The JCFA sees this approach to farmers as disrespectful and lacks compassion for the farmers who paid for the CIB assets through retained earnings of cocoa sales,” he said, adding that it effectively disenfranchises the association’s 1,000 members.”

Williams said the JCFA was also aware of attempts to create what he called “pseudo farmer organisations by influential individuals” to gain advantage in the ongoing divestment process.

“We caution the Government not to allow the process to be hijacked by them. If these assets were also allowed to be sold for the highest price, then that successful bidder will seek a return on their investment and thereby seek to maximise their profits leaving the farmer at the bottom further marginalised,” he said, but did not identify the so-called pseudo groups.

The Cocoa Industry Board of Jamaica enterprise team in a report dated June 2011 said Cabinet has approved the committee’s recommendations on the divestment and restructuring of the Cocoa Industry of Jamaica.

The committee has registered a private limited company for the transfer of the board’s commercial assets.

It also plans to seek venture capital participation in the creation of a branded cocoa product manufactured on a single estate.

The Cocoa Board’s Richmond fermentary is in the process of being divested, but a full list of assets to be privatised has not been publicised.

“To our knowledge, no asset was obtained through the Consolidated Fund and was financed only through the product of hard labour of the cocoa farmers, yet we have no say in the process divestment,” said Williams.

“We believe that any action to exclude the JCFA from the process can be similarly characterised as selling a plantation with the slaves attached to it: given that the CIB’s infrastructure embodies its monopolistic authority. It is our view the Government should take a humane view and allow the JCFA to lease the assets on behalf of the farmers and to seek a partnership with an investor with experience in the Cocoa Trade to operate these assets.”

The association’s push for representation is based on Cocoa Industry Board Act of 1957, subsection 3.2(b), which says “persons actively engaged in the growing of cocoa” may nominate five members out of which the responsible minister would select three for appointment.