A breakdown in sugar production and threats of more closures have already impacted land issues in Holland, St Elizabeth, as well as the current negotiations for a new two-year agreement for sugar workers.

Negotiations between three unions — Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, University and Allied Workers Union, and National Workers Union — covering nearly 2,000 sugar workers broke down on Wednesday, and have since been referred to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for conciliation.

The Jamaica Observer has learnt that the intervention of the ministry was requested yesterday after negotiations between the unions and Sugar Producers Federation (SPF) broke down at the local level, with the employers insisting that they have reached their limit at three per cent and two per cent over the two years, while the unions are demanding 20 per cent and 17 per cent over the same period.

But while the parties are negotiating the new agreement, there are growing signs of further reductions in sugar production, including at Appleton Estate/Holland where the focus recently has been on the selection of Holland Producers Limited in 2019 to manage the more than 1,400 acres of State-owned former sugar lands which were returned to Government after sugar production was reduced on Appleton Estate by owners J Wray & Nephew Limited.

The Observer was told that spokesmen for Italian spirits company Gruppo Campari, which purchased J Wray & Nephew Limited in 2012, had a virtual meeting with the local management at Appleton on Monday, and should have met the trade union leaders the following day. However, that meeting was rescheduled for next Monday at 2:00 pm, at which time an announcement is expected about the company’s future at Appleton/Holland in St Elizabeth.

In the meantime, the labour ministry is expected to set an early date to start conciliatory talks to settle the sugar dispute as soon as possible, while the industry tries to resolve issues which have led to the reduction of sugar workers from over 3,000 last year to fewer than 2,000 this year.

Both developments have popped up at a bad time for the industry, which has already been reduced to three main sugar factories — Appleton, Frome, and Worthy Park — with J Wray & Nephew-owned Appleton and New Yarmouth estates as the main distilleries.

The issue is also linked to the land problems in Holland, St Elizabeth, as there is growing fear that the sugar factory could be closed down soon, leaving the distillery and enough cane lands to feed that operation as well as New Yamouth’s. Despite J Wray & Nephew constantly refuting claims of a closure, rumours are strong in the industry that it is likely as part of the way forward for the rum distillers.

A number of sugar factories — including Monymusk in Clarendon, Everglades in Trelawny, and Golden Grove in St Thomas — have been closed since the 2017 sugar protocol agreement which removed protected trade quotas for sugar between the producing countries and the European Union.