With sugar clearly in trouble and struggling to make production targets, Cabinet has recognised the need for closer oversight and monitoring to ensure that the industry survives, and will be seeking input from all stakeholders to achieve the turnaround as envisaged in the revival plan launched over a year ago.
This is according to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon, speaking at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President yesterday. Production has been a challenge because of dry weather during the first crop and wet weather before and during the second crop. Added to that, the industry is feeling the full impact of the price cuts by the European Union.
To make matters worse, the new sugar factory at Skeldon is still going through teething problems and the President has voiced his dissatisfaction with the pace at which these are being addressed.
“Cabinet made its position clear about establishing a Cabinet high level team to heighten, to invigorate executive oversight of this most important sector,” he said.
The HPS noted that of concern are the issues surrounding falling production of sugar. “Falling production in the face of our demands that are going to be unmet, both domestic and external,” he said.
He added that of significance is the support given by Central Government to the industry that has not provided, in the planned timeframe, the turnaround that was laid out in the turnaround plan.
Dr. Luncheon said that Cabinet remained aware of many of the factors that impacted on the performance of this “very important sector.” He said that the intension of having the Cabinet team having executive oversight is for the team to maintain a very close engagement with the industry and its players: “management, the Board, the union, the communities [for them to] play a greater role in accessing timely information and influencing the process of bringing our expectations to reality.”