KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Karl Samuda, has disclosed that the Appleton Sugar factory in St Elizabeth will resume operational activities in January 2017.

Samuda, who was speaking at the Sugar Industry Authority’s Inaugural Post Crop Seminar in Mandeville, Manchester yesterday, said he welcomed the planned resumption, noting that the government continues to pursue new investments in the sugar industry to ensure its viability.

The agriculture minister reiterated Government’s commitment to “do everything possible to transform and reposition Jamaica’s sugar cane industry even in the face of the many challenges which confront the industry”. These challenges, the agriculture minister said, provided an opportunity for innovation, reorientation and redirection of the sugar industry.

Samuda expressed support for initiatives which were being undertaken for the export of packaged sugar and the production of liquid sugar and said diversification of the product bases and markets, and improvements in activating new streams of revenue, such as ethanol production, cogeneration and the production of liquid and plantation white sugar, were essential to the sustainability of the industry.

The Appleton sugar factory was closed as a result of an injunction obtained by fish-farming company Algix Jamaica Limited in January against J Wray & Nephew, which resulted in a suspension of operations.

Algix, in filing the injunction, claimed that Appleton was discharging effluent from the sugar factory that was killing its fish, an allegation that J Wray & Nephew denied.