Imports ‘killing’ cane farmers

For the third consecutive year, the Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited is not expected to achieve its quota of 55,000 tonnes of sugar because of malicious fires, a chronic labour shortage and an inefficent mill, said Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers Association (TICFA) public relations officer Lallan Rajaram. He said farmers estimate that 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of cane would be left to rot in the fields due to the ineffiencies at the mill and other factors. “We are calling on Government to initiate a buyout of the industry similar to the one they did for Caroni Limited and give the farmers some kind of hope in divesting into other crops,” Rajaram said.

Last year, several local manufacturers, including soft drink bottlers, were forced to curtail production due to a sugar shortage. Supplies were eventually imported from Guyana, Belize, Colombia and Cuba. Rajaram said the Government’s decision to “wash its hands” of the sugar industry would now mean that some 20,000 people would be thrown on the breadline.

“Instead of seeing about their own people, the Government perfers to bolster the economies of other countries while their own people are left to fend for themselves without work and hope,” he further added that if the Government had engaged in a meaningful restructuring exercise at the Usine Ste Madeline mill, cane taskers and tractors would not have been forced to line up for hours waiting to deliver their loads.