By IPS Correspondents
KINGSTON, Aug 1 2005 (IPS)

Even as Caribbean diplomats battle for concessions to proposed drastic changes to the European Union’s sugar price regime, the region’s governments are hustling to ensure the industry’s continued survival.

But industry players are itching to see the deliberations stop, and action begin.

The European Union is proposing a 40 percent cut in the price paid to its domestic beet producers, as well as to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar producers, over a five-year period. The proposal has alarmed Caribbean producers, who say that they stand to lose millions as a result, further impoverishing tiny states already battered by the forces of globalisation.

The small island of St. Kitts recently stopped production of raw sugar, and is hoping to develop industries based on sugar instead.

In Jamaica, officials are now poring over a strategic plan for the future of the sugar industry and Prime Minister Percival Patterson is expected to make a major statement on the matter in October.

But with the clock ticking and implementation of a new EU sugar regime likely in another two years, industry players are chafing at the bit at the Jamaican government’s delay in issuing a concrete plan for the future of sugar production.

"Whatever is going to be the shape of the industry, the worst case scenario is that government will say we are only going to be producing sugar for the local market and for the immediate (EU) market, (that is) 200,000 tonnes," he told IPS.

"Well, this year we produced 125,000, so whatever the scenario, we’re going to have to plant more cane. People are prepared to do it provided the bureaucracy doesn’t choke their ardour, which has been the case in previous attempts," he said.

That ardour will be needed as there is a lot of work to do and a lot of jobs at stake. The Jamaican government estimates that 40,000 people, mostly small farmers, are directly employed by the sugar industry, and many more are indirectly employed.

A strategic report prepared by the Planning Institute of Jamaica recommends that the industry be diversified into "a sugar cane-based industry producing a variety of products such as raw and refined sugar, molasses and rum, ethanol and energy."

The report suggests that if the government goes ahead with the establishment of a sugar refinery, an additional 83,000 tonnes of raw sugar would be needed, meaning additional production by an industry that achieved only 125,000 tonnes this year, short of its 200,000 tonne target. Low farm and factory productivity have long been the bugbears of the industry.

It is understandable, therefore, that Rickards is stressing the importance of an expedited replanting programme, but says improved factory efficiency has to be a part of the equation.

Trade unionist Norman DaCosta likes the sound of the proposals, but is less than optimistic about their implementation.

"The plans are excellent as plans go, but in this country, unfortunately, we have a reputation for making grand and elaborate plans, and too often the arrangement falls not too far beyond the planning stages, so I’m hoping that this time around they will really make a concerted effort to bring those plans to fruition," he told IPS.

DaCosta believes that despite the economic problems that the changing European Union sugar regime will inevitably bring, it has had the positive effect of galvanising those running the sugar industries in the region.

"The management for the most part became cocooned in complacency, and there was very little by way of innovation, there was very little by way of creativity," he said, adding that the guaranteed EU price regime "lulled the management into a false sense of security."

He wants to see special emphasis on training sugar workers to ensure that those able to make the transition to a more high-tech workplace will be prepared to do so.

But none of that will happen, he stresses, without the political will.

"That is what we need more than ever, the political will to get this going and to get it going pronto. Time is of the essence, the rest of the world is not going to be waiting for us," DaCosta said.

The political will, or lack thereof, of Caribbean governments is also preoccupying the chairman of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean, Karl James – especially since the warnings of people like him were ignored until recently, he says.

"It’s only in recent years, maybe four years now, that there has been this acceptance that we really need to do more than just (produce) sugar and molasses," he said in an interview with IPS, citing contrasting examples of inertia in the region.

"Many of us were just doing the raw sugar because you had a set market for it," he explained. "The Caribbean consumes 180,000 tonnes of refined sugar, we only refine 60 (thousand) in Trinidad. We had a refinery in Jamaica, we closed it down because the technology was wrong, we (didn’t) replace it with appropriate technology."

But he points to encouraging developments such as Guyana’s move to build a new refinery, and Belize’s plans to forge ahead with co-generation of energy, that is, the production of energy from heat produced during factory processes. The recommendations of Jamaica’s Planning Institute, if implemented, can work at Jamaica’s seven sugar-producing factories, James says, but the key is to move quickly.

"The unfortunate thing is because a lot of what happens in the sugar industry in the Caribbean rests on government policy and decisions, I’m waiting to see which government takes the decision," James said.

"Guyana has already taken the decision, they are going for co-generation and into expanding production, (and) refining, and once they get into refining there are a whole range of products you can get into."

"The government has taken a decision in St. Kitts, Trinidad is ambivalent, they’re not sure where they’re going, and Belize is already well ahead in co-generation, they’re about to start their co-generation plant, so it depends on the decision making, how quick it is. You just stop talking, it’s time to act, and you act and you move," he concluded.

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