http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-05-13/news6.html
Ex-sugar
workers want to know why the Government did not consider
them as recipients for some 2,000 prime residential lots
of Caroni (1975) Ltd developed by the Estate Management
Business Development Company (EMBDC).
These lots, in four areas—Orange Field, Balmain, Factory
Road, Chaguanas, and Montserrat—are to be sold to middle-income
earners of the public, through the Housing Development Corporation
(HDC).
Confirming this new development in the allocation process
of Caroni lands yesterday, Minister in the Ministry of Finance,
Senator Christine Sahadeo, said the 2,000 lots in the four
areas would be sold at a “considerably higher price”
than the $20,000 to $30,000 a lot being offered to former
Caroni workers.
Sahadeo, in a telephone interview, said the HDC would set
the criteria and conditions for the sale of the land to
the public and would make the relevant announcements shortly.
Assuring that all ex-Caroni employees who applied for housing
lots would be given lands, Sahadeo said initially, slightly
more than 7,000 lots were to be developed for the VSEP-availed
sugar workers, of whom there were just over 5,000 applicants.
In an immediate comment on this new development, Rudy Indarsingh,
head of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade
Union (ATSGWTU) has questioned claims by Sahadeo that ex-sugar
workers would be given priority treatment as regards allocation
of Caroni lands.
And the ex-sugar workers themselves are questioning why
they were not given lands in any of these four areas. Several
ex-sugar workers visited the Guardian’s Chaguanas office
last week to complain about crime at Roopsingh Road,Waterloo—one
of the areas where lots are being allocated—and said
they should have been given lots at Factory Road instead.
The ex-sugar workers who have been given lots at Roopsingh
Road, Waterloo said a growing crime problem was making this
site undesirable. They said that with the closure of Caroni
(1975) Ltd, squatters from various parts of T&T moved
into the area and that crime has become a problem and that
a Crimestoppers neighbourhood watch sign was even stolen
from the area earlier this year.
The ex-sugar workers were fearful that the criminal element
would steal building materials, which they noted was not
exactly cheap or easy to come by. And they were also concerned
about illegal drugs and associated behaviours which they
said were not conducive to a healthy neighbourhood.
Yesterday, Sahadeo insisted that there was transparency
in the process of allocating lands to the ex-sugar workers
and noted that if a particular site was oversubscribed,
the recipients of lots could choose other lots at a different
site or participate in a lot-swapping programme organised
by Caroni.
Indarsingh questioned why lots at the four sites were not
made available to ex-sugar workers.
“Sahadeo,
in her speech to ex-workers two weeks ago at Woodford Lodge,
assured that ex-Caroni workers would be given priority to
lands before any distribution is to take place to the public.
Where is the priority, Madam Minister? Why are these lands
being held back?
“Is
the Government saying that former sugar workers are not
good enough to live in an upscale community and be given
some dignity in their lives, or is it that the Government
plans to give these lands to their friends and family?
“Who
will oversee the application process at the HDC? Will this
process be done with fairness and equity or will nepotism
reign supreme?”
Indarsingh said the union has been bombarded by former sugar
workers who have said they do not want land at Roopsingh
Road, but at Factory Road.
“If
it is that these lands were initially developed for the
former sugar workers, why is it that they are now being
denied this?” he asked.
Contending that the decision to sell lands at the four sites
amounted to “continued discrimination” of sugar
workers, Indarsingh said he would be meeting shortly with
attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to discuss this new twist
of events.
Maharaj is representing a group of ex-sugar workers in a
judicial review matter in the High Court concerning the
non-receipt of lands promised them by the Government.
Indarsingh contended that the whole question of politics
has come into the distribution of lands, that “lands
in these prime locations would be allocated to PNM party
card holders.”
Reiterating that Caroni’s residential lots were supposed
to be distributed ex-Caroni workers first in terms of where
they had applied for land, Indarsingh said:
“The
time has come for ex-Caroni workers to be mobilised to make
their voices be heard on this land matter.”
—
Reporting by Adrian Boodan
Sunday 13 May 2007
Thursday 1 February 2007
Angostura facing increased prices
The
shuttered Brechin Castle sugar factory is among the assets
of the defunct Caroni 1975 Ltd. which are being offered
for sale by Government.
Angostura
facing increased prices
Caroni
shutdown means increased imports of molasses, the main ingredient
in rum
If
most manufacturers will be able to shrug off the closure
of the sugar cane industry following the 2007 crop, not
so Angostura Limited.
Caroni’s shutdown will increase the cost to the company
of producing rum, said Michael Carballo, company secretary
of the Angostura group.
For one things, he said it will mean that the company will
have to import all of the molasses it uses in the manufacture
of rum.
Carballo said, “The cost of molasses has been rising
significantly. It will continue to affect the cost of producing
rum, without a doubt.”
Asked when the price increases are likely to go into effect,
Carballo could not be specific, and did not give a date,
but said it will be sometime in 2007.
I
suspect that most increases will take effect in late 2007/2008.
It depends on what (we) could get out of the Sugar Manufacturing
Company Ltd (SMCL) this year.
Currently,
we get between 25-30,000 metric tonnes of molasses—about
30 per cent of our total requirement—from SMCL.”
Carballo said importing molasses, with added freight and
port storage costs, will lead to a rise in the final cost
of the production of rum.
The
price of molasses on the international market has increased
over the last year or so. It has doubled over the past three
years. Molasses could cost US$150 a metric tonne, inclusive
of freight,” Carballo said.
He said the supply of molasses from the SMCL has been steadily
“dwindling at a slow rate,” going down from 60,000
metric tonnes to 30,000 over the last four years.
Molasses can be imported from St Kitts, Fiji and Central
America, but Angostura is currently buying the raw product
from Venezuela.
We
deal with major commodity players like Tate and Lyle, who
can source it from Guatemala and Venezuela. The freight
element is high. We have to pay to store it in tanks,”
the Angostura executive said.
Carballo said the company is seeking a meeting with Christine
Sahadeo Minister in the Ministry of Finance, to discuss
the impact of the industry’s closure on the rum industry.
Vsep
stories: Life after Caroni
Ramdhanie
Rampersad, 63, was a cane cutter.
That is, until he participated in the voluntary separation
of employment programme (VSEP) offered by defunct Caroni
(1975) Ltd.
Nowadays, Rampersad, of Korea Village, Roopsingh Road, Carapichaima,
is not working. He survives on $1,000 from the National
Insurance Board, which his wife, Lilauthee, said is barely
enough to buy groceries, far less pay bills.
“I’m
staying with my son in Korea Village, and he’s staying
with his daughter in the same area,” Lilauthee said.
She said her husband spent much of his VSEP money on doctor’s
bills and medication for diabetes and kidney ailments.
One tablet alone to treat his diabetes costs $8. Another
tablet for his prostate problems costs $7.
****
Samuel Hackett of Mathura Street in Felicity, central Trinidad,
had been a cane cutter at Caroni (1975) Ltd since 1958.
Hackett’s mother was a part-time cane cutter and he
started cutting cane when he was nine years old. He is now
60.
This Monday afternoon, he left home to buy feed for his
parrot, Simba.
Since taking VSEP, Hackett gets a day job here and there
off-loading containers. Given his age, he’s not looking
for full-time work. So he waits on a call from a friend
when a container arrives in Enterprise to help offload electrical
fittings.
His
wife said they survive on their savings, having invested
the VSEP money at the Unit Trust Corporation.
****
He opens his front gate at New Settlement, Dow Village,
to bring in his bicycle.
Mukesh Sinanan (not his real name) worked for Caroni (1975)
Ltd for more than 50 years.
He was only eight when he took up employment with the company
pulling a bison cart out of the canefields.
One of his duties was to clear the fields for the bison
carts to pass.
In
dem days, I used to get 50 cents a day,” Sinanan said.
“In 1969, I started operating crane for $45 a day.”
The date Sinanan collected his VSEP is etched into his memory—August
18, 2003.
I
won’t forget that date,” Sinanan said.
His bald head is covered with a tattered Bob Marley floppy
hat. His khaki pants, tucked into knee-high black garden
boots, has fig stains on one leg.
He was leaning against a short wall, behind which was his
sacred place of prayer. There was a lit deya illuminating
the image of Mother Lakshmi and other Hindu deities.
Neither he nor his wife wanted their photos taken because
Sinanan is still trying to collect outstanding money from
Caroni. Poor record keeping means that the number of years
he worked is in dispute and is still to be sorted out.
Sinanan keeps a garden of coconuts, green fig and pigeon
peas on Caroni-owned land at Brechin Castle, but there’s
little yield from it.
I
plant peas, but the owner does come and pick,” Sinanan
said in a deadpan voice. “That is for me and the thief.
They gone and pick out the coconut.”
He said former Caroni workers were told they would get five
acres of land for agricultural purposes and a lot of land
to build a house, but they are now being told that those
who already own a home will no longer be so entitled.
Plenty
people have children. If they get a lot, they will give
it to them,” Sinanan said.
Sinanan said 25 per cent of those who collected VSEP are
doing nothing.
He said younger ex-Caroni employees will get work with contractors
here and there, but people like himself will find it hard
to secure a job.
He said he asked a crane operator for a job, but was told
he’s too old.
****
Syamari Bikharie of New Settlement, Dow Village, rides a
bicycle to get to the golf course at Brechin Castle, Couva.
That’s the job he has nowadays, much different from
the days when he drove a tractor at Caroni (1975) Ltd.
He worked for the sugar company for 45 years. Not all of
it was spent behind the wheels of a tractor and harvester,
though. He started off cutting and loading cane and keeping
the fields clean and tidy.
In the beginning, he worked for $2 a day. Then it went up
to $2.45.
Manufacturers unfazed by Caroni closure
BY
SANDRA CHOUTI
The president of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’
Association (TTMA) Paul Quesnel said he does not expect
the end of sugar production in T&T to greatly affect
the local market.
That’s because the country has for a long time been
importing sugar for local consumption.
Locally produced sugar has had to be exported to the European
Union to satisfy this country’s export quota under
the terms of the Lome Convention
The Convention is an international aid and trade agreement
between the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP)
group and the European Union aimed at supporting the efforts
of the “ACP states” to achieve comprehensive,
self-reliant and self-sustained development.
The TTMA’s CEO Natasha Mustapha agreed with Quesnel.
She said the end of sugar production later this year should
not directly affect its members as much as it will the farmers
and those employed in the sugar cane industry.
The Sugar Manuyfacturing Company Limited imports the sugar
required by TTMA members, earning a small commission for
itself in the process.
SMCL
purchases sugar and sells it to us,” Mustapha said.
“We don’t get preferential pricing. Almost everybody
in the food and beverage industry uses a small quantity
of sugar. SM Jaleel is the largest user of sugar,”
she said.
A smaller quantity is used by one construction company in
the manufacture of concrete products and by the pharmaceutical
industry, namely Genethics Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which adds
it to syrups and the like.
Genethics’ director and a former TTMA president Anthony
Aboud said his company buys about three to four metric tonnes
of sugar a month from SMCL.
It
does not make sense for me to be a direct importer. The
TTMA has collectively negotiated a price from SMCL that
is more competitive than if you go and buy it off the shelf,”
the businessman said.
He observed that the local sugar industry was ending for
the same reason as the authorities in St Kitts had decided
to end that island’s sugar cultivation: it was not
competitive.
It’s
not a competitive industry when compared to countries like
Brazil where you can get sugar at a price better than what
you can get it for here,” Aboud said.
However, Quesnel said the price at which SMCL has been selling
sugar to manufacturers has increased since last November.
A director at Kiss Baking Company Ltd, Quesnel said the
company imports an average of 20,000 metric tonnes of sugar
annually to make its cakes and breads.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry last year gave approval
to manufacturers to import 60,000 metric tonnes of refined
sugar.
Wayne Punnette, the ministry’s director of trade, said
before October 2006, the Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd
(SMCL) was the only entity authorised to import refined
sugar.
Manufacturers
raised the issue that they could get sugar at a more competitive
price and on that basis, government agreed for them to import
sugar,” Punnette said.
The trade ministry official said import licences have been
granted for the next 14 months.
He said most of the small manufacturers would not import
sugar on an individual basis as it’s not worth their
while to bring in a few hundred pounds.
He said it makes more economic sense for the Solos and the
SM Jaleels to import sugar directly and price is the determining
factor.
The
more popular sources have been Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala.
Wherever they can get a good price and the quality is acceptable,”
Punnette said.
He said scheduling problems have prevented Guyana from supplying
Trinidad with large amounts of raw sugar.
The
problem is that Guyana and Belize can only provide raw sugar,
but the demand is for refined sugar,” Punnette said.
Former Caroni CEO says most ex-workers have adjusted well
A
former Caroni worker carries on doing what he knows best
as he tends his own agricultural plot.
Chandra
Bobart’s last major responsibility as acting chief
executive officer of the now defunct Caroni (1975) Ltd was
to ensure that the voluntary separation employment programme
(VSEP) was “properly executed in accordance with shareholders’
directions.”
Bobart, who acted as CEO in the last five months of 2003—the
same year that 9,000 Caroni staff and daily paid workers
were given VSEP—said most of those who went home were
able to put their VSEP payments to wise use.
He said the initiative and drive of the ex-Caroni workers
has helped them to survive.
“Many
of them became self-employed. I interface with them on the
streets and in the groceries.They have adjusted themselves.
A miniscule number of them can be found in CEPEP and URP
work.”
Bobart said some former sugar workers are driving taxis,
working as mechanics or are employed in service or energy-based
industries.
He said that given that 9,000 were displaced, the crime
rate in central Trinidad did not increase, which is a credit
to the character of the ex-Caroni workers.
Given
the fact that people in the sugar industry have never been
culturally conditioned to have a dependency syndrome and
always pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, they
were able to, with whatever little VSEP money they got,
whatever little training they got, put it to wise use,”
said Bobart, a mechanical engineer by profession.
Prior to acting as CEO, Bobart was a group factory manager
in charge of Caroni’s refineries.
He got his engineering certification through two scholarships,
one from Tate and Lyle, a world leading ingredients company
with operations predominantly focused in Europe, the Americas
and South East Asia. It produces a diverse range of food
and industrial ingredients made from renewable resources
such as corn (maize), wheat and sugar.
Before 1921, Tate and Lyle were two separate cane sugar
refining operations. The two merged in 1921 to form Tate
& Lyle. In the mid-1930s Tate & Lyle began to purchase
land and set up production facilities in Jamaica, Trinidad,
Belize and Mauritius. To make sure their increasing demand
for sugar would be met, the United States and Britain encouraged
cane sugar production in many Third World countries.
In 1965, Tate & Lyle diversified into agri-business
and chemical research, leaving fewer resources to improve
sugar technology or yields. In the mid-1970s, Tate &
Lyle sold its plantations in Jamaica, Trinidad and Belize
and began to concentrate on importing and refining in the
United Kingdom. This left countries that produce and sell
raw sugar with the riskiest part of the business.
Life after Caroni
A
view across a canefield. Such views are typical of the heart
of sugarcane country in central Trinidad. Photos: Dilip
Singh
The
wind whistles through tall pine trees atop a ridge in central
Trinidad.
The view below is that of Trinidad’s sugar belt—miles
and miles of cane stalks still standing, but no longer tended—that
is slowing giving way to housing, industry and energy. Land
adjacent to the National Energy Corporation along Rivulet
Road, Couva, has been cleared for dozens of pipes which
are being stored for industrial sites in south Trinidad.
The former estate manager is speaking candidly enough, but
stops short of allowing his name to be used as he has an
outstanding legal matter over land use and acquisition with
sugar company officials.
He spoke of a few sugar cane farmers providing rum producer
Angostura Ltd with freshly-cut canes to make its 10 Cane
rum which is sold in North America.
The former manager said the contracted farmers have three
hours from the time the cane is cut to get it to Angostura’s
Ste Madeleine operations.
He said a French company is negotiating with some cane farmers
to form a co-operative to purchase the assets of the Sugar
Manufacturing Company Ltd (SMCL), which replaced Caroni.
The French company is not interested in the sugarcane itself,
but the by-product—bagasse— which they plan to
process into paper, the former manager said.
He also spoke about a former Caroni manager at Brechin Castle
who paid $18,000 for tonnes of bagasse that was reportedly
worth $3 million.
He
used Caroni equipment and materials to fence off the bagasse,”
the former estate manager said. “He made about ten
times the VSEP he got.”
The former estate manager, who has cultivated citrus on
land owned by Caroni but gives it all away, said efforts
are being made to get former Caroni workers to form a co-operative
to produce food.
Government
has asked SMCL to help them,” the former estate manager
said.
Such assistance is expected to come in the way of brush
cutting land, plowing, rotavating, banking and providing
fertilisers and pesticides, which many workers will not
be able to afford on their own.
He explained that assistance will not be provided in the
form of money, but for services and equipment provided and
costed accordingly. The idea is to pay those agricultural
farmers based on the quantum of vegetables produced.
I
don’t believe in giving cash to produce. Money is a
disincentive,” the former estate manager said.
Regarding the occupation of Caroni-owned houses, he said
they signed agreements to the effect that they can purchase
those properties, but a new recommendation has been made
that they can buy only 10,000 square feet of property.
In this former manager’s case, 10,000 square feet doesn’t
cover his water tank and citrus fruit trees laid out in
neat rows bearing handsomely in the flat plains below. He
is interested in buying the property, on one condition:
he can afford the price.
In the midday sun, a casual worker was brushcutting the
grass, giving greater prominence to the yellow grapefruits
set against pommecythere-green leaves.
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