TICFA: Govts Caroni bailout not helping farmers

GOVERNMENT’S emergency injection of funds into cash-strapped Caroni (1975) Limited comes as little but a drop in the ocean to cane farmers who have already suffered tremendous financial hardships throughout the ongoing sugar harvest.

This was the revelation yesterday from Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers Association  (TICFA) public relations officer, Lallan Rajaram. On Friday, Junior Finance Minister Ken Valley announced in Parliament that Cabinet met in emergency session and agreed to inject $489.3 million into Caroni to keep it operating until September.  Valley also told the Lower House that the company had already exhausted its current budgetary allocation for recurrent expenditure, amounting to $90 million by the first week in March.

Rajaram told Sunday Newsday that while TICFA supported Government’s decision to fund Caroni to the tune of $579.3 million, cane farmers would only receive approximately $109 million to deal with their financial woes. According to Rajaram, Caroni’s 6,000 cane farmers and their workers have been annually subsidising Caroni to the tune of $24 million but always seem to get the short end of the financial stick. He questioned why this perennial problem continues since farmers produce greater tonnage of both cane and sugar than the company. Rajaram explained that given the farmers’ cost of production (COP) of $212 per tonne compared to Caroni’s of $509 per tonne, the company would save approximately $297 million annually for a production target of 100,000 tonnes of sugar if the farmers’ COP was used as the guideline.

The TICFA PRO lamented that unlike sugar workers, farmers’ fortunes are based on the amount of canes sold and this has been hampered by the late start of the 2003 crop and numerous work stoppages initiated primarily by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU). Rajaram added that TICFA’s executive will be seeking an urgent meeting with Government to discuss the matter.