TT’s days in sugar are numbered

Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley on Tuesday revealed that Government’s decision to close Caroni (1975) Limited was based on the belief that the company was no longer capable of competing on the global market, and that TT’s days in sugar were numbered.

Valley was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to address the opening of a three-day seminar on Sustainable Impact Assessment (SIA) which was organised by the Caribbean Policy Development Sector. Expressing Government’s regret for its decision, Valley noted that closure had become necessary since the reality of sugar production had made the state enterprise uneconomic. The fact is, he stated, that TT is no longer competitive in sugar production. He said, “Our reading of the international market is that with developments in the WTO and given our earlier experience in bananas, our days in sugar are numbered. “Prices will settle closer to the cost of production and in that regard our state enterprise did not have a chance.”

Valley added that since Caroni’s employees were among some of the lowest paid in the country Government’s only option was to immediately transfer them to alternative activities. This, he said, was to the benefit of the workers, since Government has to date developed training programmes to assist in the transition to other activities, in addition to preparing institutional and physical infrastructure to allow those interested to become own-account farmers. He expressed his belief that the present requirements of competitiveness and diversification mandated by the new economic order called for a major overhaul of infrastructure in most of the Caribbean.

There was, he elaborated, a need to equip the work-force with the new skills and knowledge that would allow members to provide the necessary human resources to complement new industrial development or the restructuring of existing industries. It had also become necessary to develop a domestic entrepreneurship which was capable of re-floating the region. “Given the scale of change to which our societies are exposed,” Valley stated, “responsible Governments have to ensure that all sectors of society are engaged in the discussions and preparations for the momentous transformation that our societies face.” In this regard, civil society had a major role to perform, he said.