Jamaica and Brazil have signed two agreements under which the South American nation will assist with the modernisation of the local sugar industry, help Jamaica develop ethanol, and provide technical co-operation in tropical fruit processing.

The agreements, signed last week in Brazil by Jamaica’s Foreign Trade Minister Anthony Hylton and Brazil’s minister of external affairs Celso Amorim, also focus on training Jamaicans in production and management practices in the sugar industry.

The Brazilians have also given the undertaking to identify various sugar cane varieties that are adaptable to Jamaican conditions, including those resistant to drought, a news release from the foreign ministry said.

During the two-day visit, Minister Hylton also held talks with Brazil’s minister of energy, Silas Rondeau Cavalcante Silva, the foreign ministry said, adding that the South Americans have also agreed to explore the possibility of providing technical assistance to Jamaica in the building of a soya bean processing plant and in the production of castor bean oil for use as bio fuel.

“Minister Hylton expressed the Government’s interest in having Brazil’s energy company, Petrobras, participate in oil and gas exploration currently being undertaken in Jamaican waters,” the foreign ministry release said. “This possibility is to be explored.”

Hylton, the release added, “also had fruitful discussions with COSAN, Brazil’s largest sugar company, on their possible involvement in the local sugar and ethanol sectors”.

Hylton also explored a range of co-operation issues with the Brazilians, including assistance in supplying antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS patients and air transport linkages between Jamaica and Brazil.

The discussions also finalised an agreement to begin the teaching of Portuguese as of September 2007 at the University of the West Indies by a professor from Brazil, the ministry said.

Hylton also used the visit to discuss with Minister Amorim the current status of the World Trade Organisation Doha Round as well as the situation in Haiti, and before returning to Jamaica on the weekend, paid a courtesy call on the president of the Federal Senate Foreign Relations and National Defence Committee, Senator Heraclito Fortes.

Accompanying Hylton on the visit were Ambassador Derick Heaven, executive chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority; and Courtenay Rattray, director in the ministry’s Bilateral Department.