By Devon Evans, Gleaner WriterEXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN of the Sugar Industry Authority, Ambassador Derrick Heaven says there should be no further delay in the implementation of plans to revitalise the sugar industry in Jamaica.
He said the industry can be revived and made very profitable if everyone involved moved speedily to implement the necessary changes and make the adjustments that will ensure increased production with a greater degree of cost-effectiveness.
"If we vacillate and delay then certain events may overtake us," Ambassador Heaven warned.
The SIA Head, who was speaking in an interview with The Gleaner, was obviously referring to an industry plan approved in January 2000 to return the sugar production above 1996 figures of 239,192 tonnes, which represents the highest yield achieved between 1981 and 2003.
Several individuals involved in the sugar industry have said that the plan has been virtually abandoned and that its lack of implementation had allowed the industry to slip into further decline.
Ambassador Heaven agreed that too much time had been wasted and that although this has made the task even more difficult for Jamaica, he was still happy that an effort was now being made to put in place some of the things that need to be done.
"We are however aware of the things that we need to do, and one of the problems we have had is that while we have had this awareness, we have not been doing anything. Happily, there is now an attempt to put in place some of the things that need to be done in order to guarantee survival," he said.
The SIA chairman is of the view that it is going to require total production of approximately 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar to keep all the sugar factories open. At the same time, he said, there are no guaranteed markets for a large quantity of this product, and therefore manufacturers will have to look at value added products including refined sugar, ethanol and others.
Ambassador Heaven said that happily there has been a very encouraging move over the past month toward putting the country in a position as it relates to the matter of value-added products.
"Again I say belatedly, the signs have been there for a long time, but these are some of the issues that I think the threat of adversity is now forcing us to do what should have been done sometime ago," he added.
Ambassador Heaven denounced the practice of good agricultural lands being used for housing development, saying that this should cease immediately.
He said that while there are still enough available land for adequate sugar production, the major crisis now facing the industry is the availability of cane, which can be made worse if more cane lands are destroyed.
While agreeing that incentives to cane farmers such as concessionary loans were not enough, the SIA chairman advised cane farmers to put the funds received to productive use and establish some credit for themselves which will allow them to be able to receive additional funding.
