The Mauritian minister of agro-industry has warned small sugarcane planters that their failure to come together to save the sugar industry will mean its death knell.Arvin Boolell explained to a group of small cane growers that a "tsunami" is threatening the industry and all means should be applied to counter it.
The minister stressed that more than 60, 000 workers earn their living directly or indirectly from the sugarcane industry and that the government will not be in a position to create so many jobs to absorb the unemployed if the industry fails.
"The foreign earnings of the country will be reduced by more than US$1.2 billion between 2007 and 2015 due to a drop of 36% in sugar export prices paid to us by the European Union (EU). Eighteen other ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries are in the same situation as us," underlined Boolell. Under WTO currently being negotiated, favourable EU import terms for ACP goods would be abolished, giving way to "free trade." While the EU insists that the benefits to poor countries will far outweigh any negatives, many worry that fledgling poor country industries will be decimated by competition they are not yet ready for.
Boolell said Mauritius had no choice but to continue planting sugarcane because its type of soil and the prevailing climate made it impossible to cultivate other cash crops. "Sugarcane will remain one of the backbones of our economy, hence the idea of reforming the industry. The regrouping of small planters to carry out operations such as de-rocking of fields, mechanisation, land preparation, irrigation and transport will eventually lower the production costs by 20% and improve the yields by more than 25%," noted Boolell, helping to make Mauritian sugar more internationally competitive.
The minister gave his assurance that the financial package that the EU has offered to Mauritius to compensate for the loss of revenue will be exclusively reserved for small planters. "The huge profits which accrued to the sugar barons are allowing them to diversify into other projects such as production of electricity, carton manufacturing, ethanol production and in the tourism industry, hence the decision of the government to use the financial package to help only small planters," declared Boolell.
APA News
To ease your site search, article categories are at bottom of page.
