Former Caroni CEO tells Govt: Shift thinking on sugar

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2004-10-19/business2.html 

Clarence Rambharat, team member of the RNM, centre, chats with Caroni (1975) CEO Deosaran Jagroo, left, and Chairman Jerry Hospedales.

Photo: Adrian Boodan

By Adrian Boodan

 

Former Caroni (1975) Ltd CEO Clarence Rambharat has challenged Government to shift its thinking on sugar.

Rambharat, who is now part of the Barbados-based Regional Negotiating Machinery, spoke Saturday night at a function in his honour at the Woodford Lodge Club, Chaguanas.

Rambharat said haggling with the European Union to sustain the preferred price for sugar given to ACP producers, may not be the way to go and suggested finding alternative uses for sugar cane.
 
“A major shift has taken place in the region. People involved in the sugar industry now have to seriously consider the alternative uses for sugarcane recognising that the fight over keeping the prices in the EU regime is going to be a very difficult fight to win,” he said.
 
“Sugar is a small thing on the EU’s agenda and it is unlikely that we are going to win the battle over prices. The battle that we should be trying to win is to get funding from the EU for the diversification of sugar. When I say diversification I do not mean taking cane land and putting it into pumpkin and bodi and corn, I mean taking sugarcane and finding serious uses for it.”

However, Rhambharat who returns to Barbados on Thursday, said ethanol fuel from sugarcane might not be a viable product. “A lot of countries are talking about it mainly because they have economies of scale,” he said. “My fear is that we may not have the economies of scale to talk seriously about ethanol but talk about something else for sugar cane.”