PRIME Minister P J Patterson yesterday refused to detail government’s plans for sugar beyond next year’s European export price cut, despite pressures from the Opposition to do so in the House of Representatives.

Patterson promised to make “a definitive statement to the House in October”, based on a report from the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

The prime minister was answering questions from Opposition Leader Bruce Golding in the House on the implications for local sugar after the European Union’s phased 40 per cent cut in the export price becomes fully effective next July. He also fielded additional questions from Golding and Opposition spokesman on finance Audley Shaw.

Yesterday, Golding asked Patterson whether the government, at this time, had a “clear, defined vision” for the sugar industry.

The Opposition leader said that there were seven sugar factories with a combined capacity of 300,000 tonnes, of which the privately owned ones – Appleton and Worthy Park – account for 70,000 tonnes. However, despite the capacity, this year the industry could only muster 125,000 tonnes of sugar.

He said that more than 60 per cent of the cost of operating the factories were fixed costs, “that have to be maintained whether you produce 500,000 tonnes or whether you produce five tonnes”.

He referred to the possibilities raised by Patterson, including the production of ethanol – which, he said, has not been nailed down – and other derivatives, and the possibility of a sugar refinery which would expand the demand.

Golding asked:

. Is government contemplating a sugar industry of 200,000 tonnes or a sugar industry of 300,000 tonnes, because that, and only that, will determine whether there is going to be closures of factories?

. What is the targeted production level?

. What is the tonne yield per acre that is going to be required for the viability of the sugar industry to be restored and sustained?

. What is the recovery conversion rate?

. What are the benchmarks that are going to be set?

. What is the optimum harvesting period?

“What is the cost of production. And, most importantly, given all of these scenarios and assuming the most optimistic outturn, is the industry ever going to be able to survive, given the realities of EU, without recurring government subsidy and, if so, has the government determined the limit beyond which the country will not be able to provide a subsidy?”

But, Patterson reminded Golding that, earlier, he had promised to make a definitive statement on the issue “sometime in October”.

“And the pre-ambular portion of the question is not going to cause me to come out of my crease and say now what has to be said then,” Patterson said.

He said the PIOJ report, which contains recommendations for the sustainable future of the Jamaican sugar industry, was completed last month and all the questions and the considerations mentioned by Golding in the preamble to his question, and other issues, are all reflected in the study as well as recommendations that will flow from it and decisions which have to be taken.

However, Patterson in responding to Golding government’s vision of the industry, said it was to move it from being a sugar industry to a sugar-cane based industry, producing a variety of products, including raw and refined sugar, molasses, rum, ethanol and energy.

“It identifies what will be required in terms of acreage depending on the viability of the component pertaining to a refinery for sugar and an ethanol-using plant. And it contemplates something in the order of between 200,000 tonnes of sugar and 300,000 tonnes,” Patterson said.