DUNKLEY

Tenesha Thomas, Gleaner Writer

Coffee farmers whose holdings were destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 are to finally receive insurance payments by month end. This was the decision coming out of an emergency meeting held yesterday with the Coffee Industry Board (CIB), trustees of the Coffee Insurance Fund and other stakeholders.

"The trustees would like to see cheques rolling out by the end of the month and that is the target that everybody is working towards," director general of the CIB, Graham Dunkley, told Farmers Weekly yesterday after the meeting.

Farmers demonstrated

The meeting was called after farmers staged a demonstration in front of the offices of the CIB on Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston, on Tuesday to press their demand for the payments to be made.

The farmers have been unable to get the proceeds since the hurricane due to the insurers, Dyoll Insurance Company, filing for bankruptcy.

Thereafter, a protracted legal battle ensued between the liquidators of Dyoll and the Trustees of the Coffee Insurance Fund. However, the liquidators were instructed by the Supreme Court to pay the farmers US$3.2 million last year.

But the liquidators appealed the directive, which was still pending when both parties finally agreed out-of-court for 80 per cent of that sum in February.

Problems

In explaining the reasons behind the delay since the settlement, Mr. Dunkley said there were problems with about 1,822 of the over 5,000 claims submitted by farmers.

"Claims exceeded the sum insured from the beginning. Subsequently, you had the payment in August and then a range of appeals were lodged. There was information coming in that people got overpaid," he explained.

However, he said all those issues have now been resolved. The trustees also last month repaid the government the $60 million that was borrowed to facilitate an interim payment to the coffee farmers.