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.
