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The All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJCFA) has pulled out of a partnership with Brazil-based sugar company Aracatu in its bid to purchase the cash-strapped Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ), which has been put up for sale by the government.
"Over the months we have been getting the feeling that the Brazilians were not so enthusiastic, so we have concluded therefore that they are no longer interested," AIJCFA chairman Allan Rickards said yesterday.
He added that in recent weeks a number of scheduled meetings with Aracatu were cancelled by the Brazilian company for "unknown reasons".
"A number of dates on which we should have met have come and gone and have not been kept," said Rickards. "I, for example, was supposed to have gone to Brazil and they just keep changing the dates. Then they were supposed to come in early September, but they called and cancelled, then they were supposed to come on the 14th of September and there was no word from them to say that the visit was cancelled."
Aracatu is a medium-sized operation in Brazil with assets of US$150 million and annual revenues of US$200 million. It operates sugar, alcohol and ethanol plants in Brazil and has its own distribution network.
Yesterday, Rickards told the Business Observer that the AIJCFA has since intensified partnership discussions with Dhampur Sugar Mills of India.
"Fortunately for the cane farmers we did not put our eggs in one basket, and so we been having some talks with Dhampur," said Rickards.
He said his association had long begun to consider that there were comparative advantages to be derived from partnering with the Indian company.
"Chief among them is the fact they were accustomed to dealing with a large number of small cane farmers whereas the Aracatu are not accustomed to dealing with a lot of small farmers," Rickards said.
Dhampur Sugar Mills produces a wide range of sugar, an assortment of chemicals and is involved in co-generation.
Discussions with the company, Rickards said yesterday, have so far been "extremely amicable".