MINISTER of Information Senator Ruel Reid says that the Government is looking for private investors to take over the operations of the beleaguered Monymusk sugar estate, which is owned by Pan-Caribbean Sugar Company, and not all three of its factories.

A short statement from Reid’s office said there was “no indication from Pan-Caribbean Sugar Company that it was closing all its sugar operations in Jamaica”.

The response came a day after the information minister, at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, said the Chinese-owned company had indicated that it will shut down operations in June due to severe losses.

The news comes at a time when the 2016/1017 sugar crop production is underway. But there have been indications for almost a year now that Monymusk is under severe pressure, as hundreds of workers have been laid off since the previous crop year ended. The redundancies have mainly affected field workers, but monthly paid and factory workers have not escaped the chopping block.

On Tuesday, Harold Brown, deputy island supervisor in charge of the sugar cane sector for the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, said there are about 230 factory workers remaining at Monymusk but that, “When this crop comes to an end we anticipate that there may be some developments. In the meantime, we have some concerns. But we don’t want to frighten the workers. It’s a work in progress.”

He speculated that, given the situation, it was not totally out of the question that the company could be “courting investors”, as he was aware that recently there has been some expressed in acquiring some of the lands at Monymusk to plant sorghum for ethanol production.

Reid made it clear that the Government was not looking to get involved in sugar again, and was only interested in finding a taker for Pan-Caribbean’s (Monymusk) operations. Pan-Caribbean expects to produce 24,000 tonnes of sugar this crop season, some 4,000 less than the 2014/15 crop.

The Jamaican Government sold Pan-Caribbean its assets in the Monymusk, Bernard Lodge and Frome sugar estates and associated lands in 2011 $774 million.

Roughly 1, 250 sugar workers in the industry have been laid off since the end of the 2014/15 crop year.