Moontown

By Rory Butler

Up to a dozen LIAT workers on the island and many more in the region will have to wait longer than expected to know their fate with the company.

The Caribbean airline had intended to close its office in St John’s along with other city offices across the region on August 31, putting several employees out of jobs.

However, LIAT’s management decided to put the decision on hold following wholesale disapproval of the move by the unions representing the airline’s staff.

Chairman of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) Captain Michael Blackburn was among the union leaders that met yesterday with LIAT’s management. He said the company would now conduct further analysis before making a decision on the matter – something the unions had demanded.

“We called for a lot of analysis before that draconian measure was taken to throw people out of work,” Blackburn said. “All the unions got together and said we are not in favour of anybody losing their job at this time. It doesn’t appear to be justified.”

The LIALPA chairman warned that the measure would throw the airline into financial woes.

“The city offices are not losing money; they are making a tremendous amount of money,” Blackburn said. “There’s cash flow problems that would turn up if that happens.

“We feel that the disadvantages associated with closing the offices substantially outweigh keeping them open and the company has said they will look at it, so let’s see what happens.”

The change is proposed to modernise the airline and improve efficiency but Blackburn said the region is not ready.

“We believe that the person-to-person-based method cannot be dispensed with at this time. We have too many Caribbean people who are not able to utilise the computer and credit card,” Blackburn said. “We are not ready for that change yet. People in the Caribbean know each other and they need to speak to people.”

Among the other issues of focus at the meeting was public holiday and premium pay for flight attendants and pilots. Blackburn said the workers are unified on the matters and the pilots are throwing their full support behind the flight attendants.

“We have joined with them and we are insisting that along with the pilots’ issues they settle the flight attendants and other matters,” Blackburn said.

The unions called for a settlement to the matter to take LIAT out of the constant shadow of the threat of industrial action.

LIAT’s management assured the unions they would make the matter a priority.

The unions are expected to meet again by late August and Blackburn said he is optimistic that a settlement would be reached. (Antigua Observer)

Some of the more than $60 million worth of equipment the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has received from the People’s Republic of China to assist with the redevelopment of the rice industry. - Gladstone Taylor/Photographer

Laura Redpath, Senior Staff Reporter

THE MINISTRY of Agriculture and Fisheries has pledged to plant 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of rice, expanding on the growth in the industry which has already seen plots developed in Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, Clarendon and St Catherine.

In assisting in the venture, China, through its Ambassador Chen Jinghua, yesterday presented the ministry with equipment valued at more than $60 million.

The Jamaican Government had requested the equipment through an agreement on economic and technical cooperation.

“Technology has changed, research has changed and we don’t want to try to do the same thing we did 20-25 years ago,” Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said during the handover ceremony at the Agro-Investment Corporation in Kingston.

Five-year period

Plans to redevelop the rice industry came as a result of 2008’s food crisis, which forced the Government to explore new avenues to feed the nation.

According to the ministry, the strategic plan outlining the development resulted in 71.5 hectares of land being planted on with roughly 12 farmers cultivating the rice crop.

There are now eight potential investors who are also interested in the rice crop and land on which to plant it.

The Government’s aim is to replace a quarter of the total rice imports with local produce, over a five-year period.

Job creation

Tufton estimated that the annual cost of the import bill ranges between US$30 and $40 million, accommodating approximately 100,000-120,000 tonnes of rice consumed by the Jamaican population.

“I had a food-import bill of $800 million last year. Forty million out of that is a fairly substantial percentage of the overall for one product,” he said, while making note of the opportunity to create more jobs for traditional rice farmers.

A St Elizabeth rice farmer, Anderson Jumi, said he felt good about the presentation made by the Chinese government.

“The (Jamaican) government means business,” Jumi said. “This is a full force of equipment to start with. This is a start.”

Jumi said he was not worried about supplying the market in the future as it was already in place due to rice being a staple in the Jamaican diet.

“Rice is a logical choice,” Tufton said. “I don’t know a Jamaican who doesn’t eat rice. If there are, they are very few.” (JamaicaGleaner)

laura.redpath@gleanerjm.com

Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and Madam Jin Mei Yang, president of the Hangzhou City Coffee & Western Cuisine Association, seal the deal with a handshake during the signing of an agreement between the Government of Jamaica and Hangzhou City Coffee at the offices of the Coffee Industry Board in Kingston yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

A SWEET $11-billion boost is in the offing for the local sugar industry, which could see local farmers receiving Chinese support as they seek to maximise their output.

Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told Parliament yesterday that Cabinet has approved the recommendations of the Sugar Company of Jamaica Holdings for Chinese firm, COMPLANT International Sugar Industry Company Limited, to pur-chase government’s remaining sugar assets, including the Frome, Monymusk and Bernard Lodge factories.

“COMPLANT will acquire the three factories and attendant lands for US$9 million, or J$774 million,” Tufton told the House of Representatives.

50-year lease

COMPLANT has also agreed to pay approximately $7,500 yearly per acre to lease 44,479 acres of cane land. The lease of these lands will be for 50 years and is renewable for another 25 years.

Governments for years have been attempting to get out of the loss-making sugar business. Despite the sale of the Trelawny estates and St Thomas sugar factories for a total of $180 million, several attempts at divestment of the remaining estates fell through and deadlines which were announced were not met.

Last year, negotiations with Eridania Suisse faltered in an earlier round after the Italian sugar refiner completed its due diligence on the Jamaican assets.

The aborted asset sale to Eridania represented the second of Jamaica’s failed attempts in two years to sell the three factories, following an episode involving ethanol producer, Infinity BioEnergy of Brazil, in 2008. That South American firm was unable to muster the US$125 million cash agreed for the sale of the sugar assets.

Yesterday, Tufton told Parliament that the proposed sale was the best the Government could get.

“I think, under the circumstances, collecting just under J$900 million for an estate that was three years ago costing the government $5 billion is not a bad deal,” Tufton said.

Roger Clarke, Opposition spokesman on agriculture, said it was good that Jamaica was getting out of sugar. He, however, bemoaned the fact that the proposed agreement had not taken into consideration the cost of canes and cane roots in the fields.

“We have no disagreement in the divestment because we started the process,” declared Clarke, who was agriculture minister during the last People’s National Party administration. “The Government cannot run a sugar estate.”

Tufton said COMPLANT would develop the assets in two phases, the first of which involves the spending of $11 billion to rehabilitate fields, as well as repair the factories at Frome and Monymusk.

COMPLANT might also build a sugar factory, but this is contingent on a feasibility study, Tufton said.

“If the feasibility studies are favourable, then COMPLANT will invest US$180 million, or J$15.5 billion, to construct the refinery,” he announced.

The minister said COMPLANT has also proposed to acquire additional lands for cane expansion in order to increase throughput to the factories.

“In tandem with this, they propose to work closely with local cane farmers, providing them with the necessary support to increase production and productivity, and ensure continued supplies to their factories,” he said.

Meanwhile, the minister said the Chinese firm also plans to use cassava to produce ethanol in Jamaica.

“COMPLANT is associated with a state-of-the-art cassava-based ethanol facility in Southern China, for which China has secured a number of patents,” he said. “They also operate similar plants in some 12 countries in Africa. This aspect of the plan will open up possibilities for the expansion of commercial cassava production in Jamaica by our farmers on substantial areas of non-sugar lands, including mined-out bauxite lands.” (Jamaica Gleaner)

Bolt

LONDON (AP):

Britain’s sports minister offered yesterday to try and help resolve the tax issues that have caused Olympic champion Usain Bolt to withdraw from next month’s Crystal Palace Diamond League meeting.

Bolt announced on Monday he would not be competing at the August 13-14 event because his earnings in London would be greatly diminish after taxes.

“I will see what I can do,” Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told the BBC. “Three weeks doesn’t give us awhole lot of time to organise a tax concession.”

The British finance ministry has already exempted visiting football players from local tax laws to ensure the Champions League final can be staged at Wembley Stadium next year. (Jamaican Gleaner)

Jamaica’s coffee sector got a major boost yesterday with the signing of a historic agreement which Dr Christopher Tufton, minister of agriculture and fisheries, is hailing as a significant step forward for the industry.

The country is to send 7,000 kilogrammes of coffee, valued at US$1.7 million (approximately $150 million), to China over a 12-month period under the agreement signed between the Coffee Industry Board (CIB) and the Hangzhou City Coffee & Western Cuisine Association.

Under the memorandum of understanding with the Chinese entity, which represents some 800 cafés, coffee roasters and specialists within China, it was agreed that Hangzhou City Coffee & Western Cuisine Association would be the exclusive importer of Jamaican coffee, including Blue Mountain Coffee, into China, initially for a period of two years.

Fallout in export market

Tufton said the occasion marked a major step for the local coffee industry, which was rocked this year by fallout in the nation’s largest traditional export market.

“We have over the years depended, to a large extent, on the Japanese market for the disposal of our coffee beans. Japan accounted for, for many years, up to 90 per cent of our Blue Mountain beans,” Tufton said. “This year, we found ourselves in a situation where a fallout in that marketplace left us with excess capacity and we had to recalibrate out strategy in the interest of diversifying our marketplace.”

He added: “We believe that the sophistication and growing affluence of the Chinese marketplace lends itself to a quality brand in a more expansive way, which the Blue Mountain and Jamaican coffee represents. The taste for coffee and quality coffee in China, based on our information, is growing. Therefore, it is an opportune time to position ourselves to take advantage of that marketplace.”

Meanwhile, George Lu, chief negotiator for the Hangzhou City Coffee & Western Cuisine Association, told The Gleaner that the agreement represents a major breakthrough for his organisation, given the difficulty in sourcing genuine Jamaica coffee.

“It is important for us to have access to real coffee, premium like your Blue Mountain,” Lu said. “A lot of coffee we receive we believe is fake Blue Mountain, so it is important for us to have access to the best coffee in the world. Also, we will crack down on those fake coffees.”(Jamaica Gleaner)

By —Ria Taitt

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley slammed what he saw as the flagrant disregard and disrespect for the constitutional authority of the President by Works Minister Jack Warner.

Referring to Warner’s statement that despite (his) Rowley’s objections, former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed would be appointed chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Rowley said: “Only the President can appoint a chairman….That power that lies with the President in his sole discretion…But Jack Warner is telling the country who the chairman would be”.

“We wait to see how right Warner is,” Rowley said.

Warner’s statement coming right after the Attorney General Anand Ramlogan’s threat that the new PSC would cut short the tenure of the acting Police Commissioner, James Philbert, pointed to a trend in this Government of “assuming powers that they don’t have and power that they want,” Rowley stated.

He said he had no problem with Nizam Mohammed as a person, but given the powers held by the police, the last thing one wanted was to put that Commission in the hands of a politician, the PNM leader said.

Speaking at a public meeting in Arima on Monday night, Rowley also lambasted Warner for “saying that he wants contractors to pave a road for free and those who don’t agree would be at the end of the line”.

“That is a violation of the oath of office of a minister of government…which says that you must act without fear or favour, malice or ill-will. You tell me if a contractor paves a road for free and he gets put at the top of the line; and the one who didn’t agree to pave a road for free gets pushed at the back of the line, what kind of procurement procedure is that and isn’t that showing favour…acting with malice,” Rowley said.

“And I want to tell Jack something. I hear him talking that the PNM trying to sanitise me. ‘Jack I’m clean. And I still have my ticket home from 1989 stadium so get off my back. I don’t have to be sanitised. I can stand up and defend myself in any public square,” Rowley thundered.

The PNM leader said the acceptance by elements in the country of these “surreptitious changes” of our ethical standards was frightening.

Rowley also noted that Warner spoke about the payment of rent by the PNM Government.

Rowley said he did not know that renting a building was a crime.

“To tell me that the PNM Government rented buildings from a PNM person. What does that mean? Does it mean that as long as you are a member or supporter of the PNM you are to be denied what the country has to offer? And they tell you there were seven major landlords and one is a PNM. That is the start of victimisation. I tell you small man, big man, middle man when you start to victimise the first man, then you look for the second man, then the woman…And if that is the system of Government that we shall have in this country, then victimisation would be the order of the day”, Rowley said. (Trinidad Express)

By by Renuka Singh

Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas reserves have fallen again.

The country now has ten years of natural gas left in its proven reserves.

The results were released yesterday by Ryder Scott Company, based in Houston, Texas, USA, which has done four previous oil and gas audits of the country’s reserves.

Natural gas is the country’s largest revenue earner.

Company representative Larry McHalffney admitted yesterday the declining reserve figures painted a “bleak picture” of the country’s oil and gas future, but he said, “What appears to be is not always the case.’”

In presenting the audit findings at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel in Port of Spain yesterday, McHalffney said despite the steady decline in the proven gas reserve figures over the past nine years, the country maintained a “steady, stable reserve base”.

Since 2000, proven natural gas reserves have declined from 19.7 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 15.4 bcf in 2008, Ryder Scott data showed.

Data for 2009 released yesterday showed reserves had declined even more, down to 14.4 bcf.

Probable reserves stood at 7.8 bcf and possible were 5.9 bcf of gas.

It comes at a time when gas production levels in the country have dropped because of fewer exploration and production investments by energy firms.

The last time Ryder Scott presented the audit, there were 12 years of natural gas reserves.

Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan said to satisfy the natural gas demand, Trinidad and Tobago had been tapping the reserves at a rate of 1.4 trillion cubic feet yearly.

Natural gas prices have lingered at around US$4 per mmbtu for months.

Now, what needs to happen is a “significant” investment in exploration for natural gas.

“Our goal is 100 per cent replacement of annual gas production,” she said, adding to achieve this, the Government would encourage the necessary exploration, appraisal and development drilling in order to move resources into the reserve categories.

‘There must be significant and sustained exploration to activity to maintain the reserve base,’ she said.

She said the stable reserve base, as outlined by the Ryder Scott audit, proved the country was on the right track.

“This demonstrates that although our extraction rate has increased, we have been able to transfer exploration resources to the reserves category,” she said.

Seepersad-Bachan said to help bolster the declining figures in all three categories, the Government has opened the competitive bid round for both the shallow and deep-water exploration.

She said the bidding process started in April, ends in August and has already attracted bids from at least eight companies.

“Our expectation is that these bids would lead to product-sharing contracts,” she said.

She said the decision-making process would be faster this time and expected to award contracts by December.

Though Seepersad-Bachan did not say if she was worried by the ten-year gas projection, she said she “did not want to delay the bid rounds for deep-water exploration”.

She said recently completed study of the deep-water areas revealed reservoirs that “contain significant quantities of oil and gas” and added those areas have already been earmarked for bids. (Trinidad Express)