Voice of Guyana International

Ariti Jankie South Bureau – Trinidad & Tobago Express
Government has turned down a request from sugarcane farmers to import labourers from Guyana to cut cane in Trinidad, the Trinidad Islandwide Canefarmers Association (TICFA) said yesterday.
TICFA said it made the application because it cannot get enough people in Trinidad to harvest this year’s crop, which began three weeks late.
It wanted Government to provide the necessary permits to allow the organisation to hire 500 Guyanese canecutters, TICFA’s Public Relations Officer Lallan Rajaram said.
“We were told by National Security Ministry officials that there was no shortage of labour locally in spite of our experience to the contrary,” he said.
Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.
Rajaram said that the industry was in “real trouble.”
“Unplanned fires in all the sugarcane districts, a severe shortage of labour and rainy weather have dealt a heavy blow to the industry,” he said.
Rajaram said the booming construction industry had consumed all the local labour that was available. He added that labour from Guyana would ensure that the target of 600,000 tonnes of cane would be harvested.
TICFA estimated that $1,500 a month would be easily paid to each Guyanese labourer for a three-month period. He said that the help from Guyana would bring hope to the struggling industry.
“There are still 6,000 registered farmers and despite the fact that half of them have walked away from sugarcane farming, the crop is in the fields ready to be harvested,” Rajaram said.
William Washington, an official of the Sugar Industry Team said harvesting has been “slow” because of the rainy weather.

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