Sugar diluted by flood rain, estates predicting lower yields
Published:Sunday | October 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Mark Titus, Business Reporter
Worthy Park Sugar Estate has estimated preliminary damage at about $50 million in the wake of Tropical Storm Nicole, and managing director Peter McConnell is now hoping the slowly receding flood waters in his cane fields will not have any further negative impact on his operations.
Waters rose as high as 25 feet to cover both fields and road infrastructure in the St Catherine community of Lluidas Vale, leaving a distraught McConnell, already crying out for more lands to increase production volumes, to make do with what is left of his crop.
"All the canes have been blown down flat, and when that happens, you cannot get good yields or good conversion to sugar once it lies down," he told Sunday Business.
"In sugar terms, this means that for every tonne of sugar, I am going to lose 1.25 tonnes of cane, so instead of taking 7.75 tonnes of cane to make a tonne of sugar, it will now take me 9.5 tonnes to make, and that is where the big loss is."
Worthy Park produced 20,000 tonnes of the sweetener last year and was looking to increase that to 22,000 tonnes for the 2010-2011 crop, but McConnell now believes 19,000 tonnes is a more realistic target.
"We cannot look for more than 19,000 tonnes at this time, which is a 15 to 18 per cent drop, and that is a substantial loss," he said.
Damage assessment was on in earnest at state-owned Monymusk in Clarendon, but chairman of SCJ Holdings Limited, Aubyn Hill, said early last week that it was too soon to comment on the extent of any damage.
"The rains have not eased up yet, and as you can imagine, this involves thousands of hectares of cane lands, and I will not be rushing through this," said Hill.
However, a well-placed source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Sunday Business that more than 100 acres of cane at various stages of maturity, belonging to the factory, were destroyed, and that three of the factory pumps were damaged during the flood rains.
Monymusk fell 20,000 tonnes short of the 37,000 tonnes projected for the 2009-10 crop, churning out only 17,000 tonnes of sugar from the 247,000 tonnes of cane delivered.
For the new crop year, which normally kicks off in December, Monymusk is required to produce 45,000-50,000 tonnes of the sweetener as its contribution to Jamaica's contractual obligations to supply 100,000 tonnes of sugar to British refiner Tate and Lyle (T&L) in 2010-11.
Monymusk's portion is expected to come from 480,000 tonnes of cane, two times that of the last crop.
Another 180,000 tonnes is to come from Bernard Lodge and the private farmers in St Catherine, with the remainder gathered from the cane lands in the southwest and southeast areas of Clarendon.
Dr Horace Cheroo, vice-chairman of the Mid-Clarendon Cane Farmers' Association, is concerned about the condition of these public road surfaces, especially after the recent showers, and any possible impact on the farmers' ability to deliver.
"The public roads from the St Jago area, which borders the parish of Manchester through to the factory site and the Salt River Road, which is used by units delivering cane from St Catherine, were in bad condition from last year, and the recent flooding has made things worse," Cheroo said.
"Unless priority attention is paid to these areas, it is going to be difficult to transport canes to the factory, and farmers are getting worried about the take-off of the next crop. So we will be pressing to have these roads fixed by the end of the year, because this is the only way we can go anywhere near what is required."
According to Cheroo, another cause for concern is the reported damage to two pumps belonging to the National Irrigation Commission which might affect the crops should there be a need for additional water.
All the cane fields on Frome Estate in Westmoreland, as well as those of private suppliers, are affected by excess water, but Lucius Jackson, chairman of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association Western Region, is hopeful that all will be well for the December start-up date.
"The fields are under some serious water, but I don't expect this to affect the December start-up, or the quality of the cane," he said on Monday.
"All we have to do is hope that the water dries up in another week or two. Beyond that, we can begin to be concerned because we will need about six to eight weeks for the fields to dry out or the cane quality will reduce significantly."
Frome made 41,000 tonnes of sugar last crop, falling just short of the projected 45,000 tonnes. For the current crop, SCJ Holdings will be pressing for 55,000 tonnes from 645,000 tonnes of cane to satisfy the Tate and Lyle's supply deal.
Hill was again unwilling to comment - at least not until he visits the Westmoreland facility on Monday, October 11 - nor would he say whether there was any provision in the US$26 million T&L contract that allows Jamaica to avoid penalties if it cannot supply the sugar.
The three factories, Monymusk, Frome, and Bernard Lodge, will fully transition to new owners, the Chinese firm COMPLANT International Sugar Industry Company Limited, in June 2011.
COMPLANT acquired the factories for US$9 million in July.
Minister of Agriculture Dr Christopher Tufton was as evasive as his pointman Hill, but said the provisions under the current pricing arrangement - which allows for a pooling of all the sugar produced locally by private and publicly owned factories - offer a fallback position.
There was no word from the management of Everglades Farm in Trelawny on the impact of the heavy rains on estate lands, but word from the Clark's Town area where Long Pond is located is that most of the fields in that sugar belt were unaffected.
The Hussey family-owned Ever-glades experienced a torrid first season before a decision was taken to suspend factory operations for the 2010-11 crop year to allow for a more comprehensive refitting.
Some US$3.6 million has reportedly been spent on factory repairs, and US$2.75 million on crop expansion, translating into some 1,208 acres of new cane plantings.
In the meantime, the Frome sugar factory will be crushing all the cane from the Trelawny fields, while the Sugar Transformation Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will provide financial support to the estate workers courtesy of a grant of J$13.5 million from the European Union-financed sugar fund.
The Golden Grove Sugar Company in St Thomas is located in an area renown for flooding over the years, with the slightest rainfall causing the Plantain Garden River to overflow its banks, making roadways and farm lands inundated.
Manager and co-owner Dr Richard Jones could not be reached for an update on the state of the facility.
The factory did 12,587 tonnes of sugar for the last crop - 16 per cent below the projected 15,000 tonnes of sugar - from 193,000 tonnes of cane.
In the last crop, ended June 30, Jamaica produced 119,518 tonnes of sugar.