The Jamaican sugar industry now stands to benefit from a 356 million-dollar (Jamaican) agreement signed on Friday, March 2, 2007, by the Minister of Finance, Dr the Honourable Omar Davies, newly appointed head of the Delegation of the European Commission, Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemani, and Agriculture Minister, the Honourable Roger Clarke.

This agreement comes against the background of the proposed 36 percent reduction in the guaranteed price paid to sugar–producing countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region, with the aim of assisting them to halt the decline in their respective industries, resulting from the possible dislocation caused by the reform of the European Sugar Regime.

Under the European Commission’s "Accompanying Measures for Sugar Protocol Countries", Jamaica and the other ACP member–countrieswill continue to receive yearly subventions for the next six years.

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Contact:

Mrs. Zuleikha Budhan
Principal Director, Planning Policy & Development
Ministry of Agriculture
Hope Gardens, Kingston 6
Tel: (876)–927–1731–50
Fax: (876)–927–1904
Email: zabudhan@moa.gov.jm