ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — In light of the abandonment of the 2016 Appleton sugar crop, efforts are being made to truck farmers’ cane to Frome Sugar factory in Westmoreland, Minister without portfolio with responsibility for agriculture, JC Hutchinson, has revealed.“We are looking to see if we can send the cane to Frome,” Hutchinson told the Jamaica Observer.

Hutchinson who is also Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth North Western, base for many of St Elizabeth’s cane farmers, said Appleton Estate had been approached for help to get the cane to Frome.

“We are in dialogue with Appleton to see if they can do something, whether they can assist with getting the farmers’ canes to Frome, we don’t know what they will do with theirs (Appleton Estate cane),” Hutchinson said.

The Appleton Sugar crop was a non-starter for 2016 after fish farming company Algix Ltd obtained an injunction against J Wray and Newphew Ltd, parent company of Appleton. Algix is alleging that effluent entering the Black River from the Appleton Sugar factory has caused massive fish kills and huge losses.

The injunction was upheld by the Court of Appeal earlier this month with the matter scheduled to return to Court in September.

Hundreds of acres of mature sugar cane which would usually go to the Appleton factory are waiting to be reaped in northern St Elizabeth. The Appleton sugar crop usually lasts from January to June.

 Hutchinson said the situation was particularly urgent since the rainy season has started in St Elizabeth. Heavy rain routinely depletes the sucrose content of sugar cane and also makes reaping difficult.

The situation is another hefty blow to Jamaica’s ailing sugar industry. Earlier this year cane farmers and sugar workers in northern St Elizabeth staged road block protests in the wake of the court injunction. Appleton says it has sought to relieve the situation by paying weekly wages even in the absence of the sugar crop. 

Garfield Myers