More scale problems in sugar belt

EVEN  as Agriculture Minister Jarrette Narine was expressing confidence yesterday that this year’s cane production quota will be met, farmers in Valley Line, Barrackpore, shut down cane weighing scales and threatened violence against Sugar Manufacturing Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SMCTT) personnel operating the scales.

Wayne Innis, head of the Sugar Industry Team (SIT) which is coordinating this year’s crop, confirmed that due to threats of violence against SIT’s cane weighers and crane operators, a scale at Oropouche Road in Barrackpore had to be closed. Farmers at other scales in Valley Line vowed not to cut or sell their cane to scales located there. There are 29,000 tonnes of cane earmarked for delivery to one of the scales, but Innis said SIT would not give in to farmers’ demands to replace hydraulic weighing scales with the old platform scales. Cane Producers Association (CPA) president Sookeran Tamby told Newsday the Valley Line cane farmers have decided not to have their cane weighed on hydraulic scales. Last year, he claimed, farmers lost $15 million in revenue due to inaccurate readings on these scales. The newly-formed SMCTT, which took over from Caroni (1975) Ltd, replaced the platform mechanically-propelled scale with a digital hydraulic scale.

The farmers say they intend to stage a protest at all the Valley Line scales on Monday. Innis said: “There is a dispute regarding the Oropouche scales as to who should operate them. There is also an issue of the implementation of the hydraulic scale. “We have met with the farmers and have decided not to go back to the flatbed platform scale. SIT personnel have been threatened and we have decided to close down the Oropouche scale.” First vice president of CPA, Moses Charles, said the association has reported the matter to the Bureau of Standards, the Weights and Measures Division of the Ministry of Local Government, and to attorney Garnet Mungalsingh.’