J’can sugar among the costliest to produce
THE current average cost of producing sugar in Jamaica places the country among the highest cost producers, Prime Minister P J Patterson said Tuesday.
Patterson said that the current average cost places Jamaica as one of the higher cost producers, not only among African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries, but in export sugar countries. He said that efforts have to be made to reduce those average costs, as well as to look at other products beside sugar that can use what is produced from the cane.
He said that the costs varies from 25 cents US at the least efficient factories to 15 cents US at the most efficient.
The prime minister was responding to a request from Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, to provide some indication on the current industry-wide average cost per pound of producing raw sugar and whether it placed Jamaica among the highest cost producers in the world.
