A coffee tree laden with berries growing in the Blue Mountains on August 25, 2006. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Rayon Dyer & Michael McLean, Gleaner Writers

Essex Valley, St Elizabeth:

President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Senator Norman Grant, has said the liquidators of the Dyoll Insurance Company have agreed to pay the island's coffee farmers $158.4 million.

Senator Grant said the liquidators agreed to pay over 80 per cent of the outstanding US$3 million insurance entitlement in an out-of-court settlement with the trustees of the Coffee Farmers Insurance Fund two Saturdays ago.

The Dyoll liquidators have also withdrawn the appeal against a Supreme Court ruling last year for the entire insurance entitlement to be paid to the farmers.

Payout formula

He said the farmers had already received US$200,000 ($13.2 million), bringing the total payout to $171.6 million. He said the trustees would determine the formula for payment and the payout date for the entitlement.

However, while the coffee farmers are pleased with the outcome of the out-of-court settlement, Derrick Simon, representative for the Blue Mountain Coffee Farmers, said they feel that they have been shortchanged by the insurance company.

He said if the liquidators of Dyoll had stuck to their promise to abide by the Supreme Court ruling, the farmers would have received 100 per cent of the US$3.2 million.

"Many of the farmers felt that 80 per cent is not bad, but they feel that if the liquidators had kept their word, they would have got the 100 per cent," Mr. Simon told Farmers Weekly. Furthermore, he said $60 million will have to be paid back to the Government.

Move forward

But Senator Grant said: "I am happy that we have reached an out-of-court settlement and with this (all the parties) can move forward."

In the meantime, the JAS president also announced that a weekly farmers' market would be established in St. Elizabeth.

Senator Grant, who was delivering the keynote address at the annual 'St. Bess Food Fest', held at the Essex Valley showground in St Elizabeth last Saturday, said the initiative is a partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the St. Elizabeth JAS Branch Society, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, the private sector and farmers.