STAKEHOLDERS in the sugar industry are hoping the Government will find ways to keep the Monymusk Sugar Estate going following Pan Caribbean Sugar Company’s declared intentions to remove the ailing estate from its operations.

The Government divested the sugar assets of the Clarendon-based estate, along with those of the Frome Sugar Estate in Westmoreland and the Bernard Lodge Estate in St Catherine to Pan Caribbean over a period of time, starting in 2009.

However, it has not been smooth sailing for the sugar company, especially with regard to the Monymusk Estate where it has been plagued with various problems such as soured relationships with workers and community members as well as significant financial losses.

Last July, the Government, through the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) Holdings, entered a temporary agreement to operate Monymusk after Pan Caribbean indicated that they were not able to keep it open. The company has again asked the Government to intervene, as it maintains its position to not pump any more funds into the factory and seek to cut it from its operations.

But while the way moving forward is still unclear, chairman of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers’ Association Allan Rickards said there are a few things that must be taken into consideration since Pan Caribbean has taken a definitive position with what must happen to Monymusk.

He said the intentions for the other two estates must also be declared by Pan Caribbean.

“One of the problems the Government has faced is that it could not sell Monymusk; it only received initial indications of interest in terms of people who were interested and many of those interests were indicated in both Frome and Monymusk,” Rickards said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Now at least, they are in a position [where] they can properly entertain and attract interest because the entity is now up for sale, according to Pan Caribbean; they couldn’t do this before, now they can in that regard so there is some definite way forward,” he continued.

He said that the Government has been wise enough to recognise that in order to divest the entity it must go to new owners who would have to keep it in a condition where it is operational.

Rickards added that it is also easier to sell a sugar factory that is operational as, like many other heavy industry entities, it deteriorates very quickly when not operational. He added, however, that a new factory can be rebuilt in a matter of months to a year.

“The agricultural aspect of it, however, once it deteriorates, cannot be resurrected as easily, therefore it is very important the factory remains operational… it is going to be very critical the factory operates for the coming crops while an investor is sought,” Rickards said.

Monymusk, he told the Jamaica Observer, has a very strategic position in the sugar industry and so the cane farmers will be looking to Monymusk as well as the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) Holdings Limited to achieve two very important things in what they hope will be their short term.

“We need them to progress with some amount of urgency with the production of plantation white sugar, thus having a situation where Jamaica will not import any sugar at all; we will be able to satisfy our needs for white sugar with plantation white as is the case in other countries such as Belize,” Rickards said.

“Secondly, we need for the SCJ to move immediately to have definitive discussions with the JPS (Jamaica Public Service Company) regarding some kind of power swap based on the capacity of Monymusk to generate surplus electricity for the grid, thereby bringing about a situation where there will be a significant reduction in the cost of irrigation,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Clarendon Cane Farmers’ Association Clayton Washington said cane farmers don’t want to burden the Government but due to the problems faced by Monymusk the need for an intervention is appreciated.

“One of the best things coming out is that they (Pan Caribbean) would prefer a complete sale rather than a partnership…and we the farmers, we prefer also that the place is sold to somebody willing and able to run the plant,” Washington said.

Washington said cane farmers in Clarendon are 100 per cent behind Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Karl Samuda’s request for Pan Caribbean to offset the bill for operations until a buyer is found.

“If we don’t have an investor and it’s not taken over before, we are in total support of that and the minister can count on Clarendon farmers for that support,” he said.