LOCAL investors are complaining that despite multiple attempts to invest approximately US$150 million in the island’s sugar industry, their proposal is being ignored.

The investors, who operate Yallahs International Inc (YII), a subsidiary of a USA company called Manch 33 LLC, claim that they have been navigating red tape for the past four years without a valid explanation.

Chief operating officer of YII Everton Simpson told the Jamaica Observer that over the past four years, YII has shared the investment proposal broadly with several ministries and agencies within the Government of Jamaica (GOJ). The proposal was also shared with the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro), All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers’ Association (AIJCFA), and Pan Caribbean Sugar Company (PCSC).

The investment proposal includes a rescue plan for Jamaica’s sugar cane industry as well as initiatives to grow the renewable energy sector by producing more ethanol locally.

More specifically the investment is intended to transform the sugar cane industry in the southern plains of Jamaica by creating a portfolio of “value added products”.

But in order to move forward with the plans, the investors need government approval. They told the Business Observer that they don’t expect the Government to approve their proposal without scrutiny, however, they lamented that despite several efforts to find out what is going on there has been no response from the government side.

The Business Observer reached out to Jampro which was one of the entities which YII said it shared its proposal with. The entity stated, “Jampro was actively engaged in driving the investment project for Yallahs International Inc from 2018 to the present. Our primary mandate is to drive trade and to generate local & foreign direct investments in Jamaica. The authority to issue regulatory approvals or business licences is not within Jampro’s ambit of responsibility and as such we focus on guiding and facilitating the securing of approvals/licences from other government agencies.”

Documents shared with the Business Observer show that up to December 28, 2021 the investors wrote to Jampro requesting an update on the project, however, to date no response has been forthcoming.

But Jampro has indicated that it is not its fault.

“In this case, the project sponsors were interested in acquiring the Monymusk factory and converting the factory operations from a primary sugar producer to a diverse value-added manufacturing operation for anhydrous ethanol, synthetic gasoline-ETBE, xylitol, sorbitol & sorbitol esters with sugar cane as the primary raw material. Jampro introduced the investors to all relevant government agencies and the matter awaits a decision by the relevant parties,” the Jampro statement continued.

In the meantime, the government agency assured that “We are involved in advancing investment projects with numerous clients and government stakeholders and remain very much committed to the due diligence process for all related investment activities, while ensuring that the national objectives and social development goals are achieved and aligned.”

Meanwhile, the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers’ Association (AIJCFA) is also claiming that they too have done all they can.

In a response to the Jamaica Observer, chairman Sydney Fray said “in 2018-2019 we were made aware of Yii and invited their principals to our offices to share with us their vision. The project was well received by the AIJCFA and we began immediately to lobby the then Minister Shaw to meet with the Yii team. We were successful in arranging a meeting with the minister and Yii. It is our understanding that Yii subsequently submitted a proposal to the ministry.”

Fray further added that “the AIJCFA under the leadership of then Chairman Allan Rickards continued to lobby the minister to engage with prospective investors who had an interest in the Monymusk factory and lands. The minister established a Sugar Alternative Strategy (SAS) Team (Sugar Enterprise Team) to look at a number of proposals which were received by the ministry regarding the Monymusk factory and lands.”

The main objectives of the SAS Team were as follows:-

• Facilitate negotiations between prospective investors and the owners of sugar factories;

• Provide advice to the Minister;

• Spearhead and lead the Government’s response as it relates to the future operations and investment opportunities of divested sugar factories which were shuttered.

“To the best of our knowledge the SAS Team engaged the prospective investors including Yii and made recommendations to the minister which brought to an end the life of the team,” said Fray.

He noted that “the AIJCFA continued to reach out to Yii periodically regarding the status of the project or to indicate to them possible partnerships with other interested parties. The AIJCFA remains steadfast that the sugar industry and particularly the Monymusk area has a future but which is not based on the current model of producing a singular product (sugar). The AIJCFA is fully behind a diversified sugarcane industry producing a mix of products akin to the Yii proposal.”

However, he admitted that the AIJCFA is an association of farmers with the primary objective of lobbying in their member’s interests.

“Maybe Yii’s expectations of the power and influence of the AIJCFA far exceeds the reality. The AIJCFA is excited to see that Yii is resolute in the efforts to see the project materialise. We stand ready to support the Yii team to continue our lobbying efforts to have the GoJ/MoAF provide the enabling environment that Yii is seeking,” Fray stated.

The Ministry of Agriculture has promised to comment on the matter but up to press time no response was forthcoming.

In the meantime, the investors claim that the delays over the past four years have resulted in a degradation of the targeted operating environment – available sugar cane and existing cane processing (receiving and grinding) facilities. This means that the level of investment required to make the project feasible has gone up significantly.

They say the lack of positive decisions and compounding delays eviscerated effective deployment of “state of the art” agri-management practices that would stabilise and expand cane supply. Consequently, the available supply had declined from an estimated 400,000 tonnes per year to a current estimate of 120,000 tones. They argue that this undoubtedly has a negative domino effect on the projected financial results.

Nevertheless, the investors say they are willing to move ahead with the investment proposal if the Government starts communicating with them in an efficient way.