SOMERTON, St James – In an effort to offset the fall off in revenue due to the closure of the Hampden Sugar Factory in Trelawny, sugar cane farmers in a number of St James communities have turned their attention to sorrel cultivation.

Councillor for the Somerton Division Cecil Davis told the Observer on Thursday that more than 200 residents in the farming communities of Somerton, Lottery, York, Industry, Content and Moore Park are now cultivating the crop for the local and overseas markets.

The farmers, Davis said, are being assisted by an allocation of $150,000 from the St James Parish Council’s Community Development Fund. Since its inception last year, the fund has provided more than $2 million to 14 parish council divisions for the implementation of selected social and economic projects in the various communities. Over the next few months the remaining three parish council divisions are expected to receive close to $500,000 to undertake projects.

Davis said the sorrel project in his division, which began less than three months ago, comes at a time when farmers in the area are coming out of sugar cane cultivation.

“The farmers have looked at alternate crop based on the fact that the sugar cane in that area, which at one time was very prominent, is now hardly any where in the area,” explained the councillor, who is also Montego Bay’s deputy mayor.

The government closed the Hampden Sugar Factory in Trelawny in December 2002, which resulted in the redundancy of more than 300 factory workers. As a result of the closure, farmers who once sent their canes to that factory had to pay additional transportation costs to the Long Pond processing plant. With the additional costs and other factors associated with the cultivation of the crop, many farmers opted to get out of sugar cultivation.

Davis said the sorrel project, which he described as a viable alternative, will now give the former cane growers a chance to earn a livelihood.

“The demand for sorrel is now all year long. It is not just a ‘Christmas product’, it is on the shelves in the supermarkets all the time,” he said, adding that there is a great demand for the product on the overseas market. “This demand is not only for the juice, but also for the leaves of the plant which is now being used to make hot beverages and sorrel; it is also being used to make jelly.”

Over the next few months, he noted, the number of farmers involved in the cultivation of sorrel is expected to increase significantly as seedlings will be distributed to farmers on a continuous basis.