John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

Appleton Estate, St Elizabeth, part of the holdings of the Lascelles deMercado Group, is valued for its rums, said to be number four in the world. - File

Lascelles deMercado is pushing ahead with plans to lease 700 hectares of government-owned land in Clarendon - a move that will allow it to increase the throughput of cane for its sugar factory in St Elizabeth and, importantly, produce more molasses for the manufacture of rum.

Billy McConnell, Lascelles' CEO, said the company will spend $300 million to develop the land once the lease is agreed.

"We should have got it last year (and) prepared ourselves so that this year we could start planting," McConnell told the Financial Gleaner.