CLARKS TOWN, Trelawny – In what has been described as an unprecedented move, the All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJCFA) has filed documents with the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA) seeking to recover $39 million in losses from the state-run Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ), on behalf of 190 cane farmers in Trelawny and Clarendon.

“Our attorneys have filed the necessary papers with the SIA, which has written to the SCJ to see if it would settle the matter informally. And so we are giving them (SCJ) until the end of this week to respond,” Allan Rickards, the chairman of AIJCFA told the Observer on Tuesday.

The sum, Rickards said, represents the loss of earnings by farmers from an estimated 20,000 tonnes of unreaped canes in those parishes during the 2004/2005 sugar season. The canes, Rickards added, were not harvested as a result of the late start of the crop at the Long Pond and Monymusk sugar factories.

“We are saying that the canes were not reaped because, through their (SCJ’s) own negligence in not carrying out timely and effective repairs to those factories, the factories started two months late,” Rickards explained.

Rickards said that of the 190 cane farmers that the AIJCFA was seeking compensation for, 110 were hoping to sell their canes to the Long Pond Sugar Factory in Trelawny.

At the end of the Long Pond crop which came to a premature end in July, president of the Long Pond/Vale Royal Cane Farmers Association Delroy Anderson told the Observer that cane farmers in the parish were left with an estimated 15,000 tonnes of unreaped canes in their fields.

By his estimation, Anderson said that the farmers had lost roughly $40 million in earnings.

On Tuesday, Rickards stressed that if the SCJ did not settle the matter ‘informally’ then the action would be formally brought before the SIA, which will then convene a hearing.

Under the Sugar Industry Authority Act, the SIA is the body that is charged with the responsibility to deal with disputes concerning the sugar industry.

The SIA is therefore empowered to arrive at judgements and award compensation as it deems fit. However, parties that are not satisfied with the SIA’s judgement can take the matter to the Court of Appeal for a final resolution.

Chief Executive Officer of the SCJ Livingstone Morrison refused to comment of the matter.

“I have absolutely no comment… no comment at all,” he told the Observer.

Morrison, a former banker has come under fire this year from the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the AIJCFA for the poor performance of the island’s five state run sugar factories.

In July, opposition leader Bruce Golding called for the dismissal of the management and board members of the SCJ, charging that their leadership has been the major contributory factor to poor performance of the sector.

Rickards had also called for the dismissal of the SCJ’s management.

But the SCJ’s board has expressed confidence in the managers.