THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on June 1 in the years identified:

Jamaica will sell be1966:tween 8,000 and 9,000 tons more sugar to the United States in 1966 than was calculated a month or six weeks ago. The additional sales are a direct result of Puerto Rico’s falling short of its original quota allocation by fully 410,00 long tons. Reports from Washington, the US capital discloses, that the British West Indies (BWI) – (including Jamaica and newly independent Guyana) – is allocated 16,325 short tons (or about 14,700 long tons) to help offset the Puerto Rico shortfall. Jamaica usually gets nearly half of the allocations from the USA, but with Trinidad production in 1966 falling greatly below expectations, this island will almost certainly have to take up more than half of the latest BWI allocation. 1993:Seymour Minister of Agriculture

Mullings says Jamaica is facing zero per cent growth in the agricultural sector this year because of rain and flood damage to crops. Speaking at the opening of the annual conference of the Jamaican Society for Agricultural Sciences at the Jamaica Conference Centre, Mullings says that a 15 per cent growth had been expected based on the first-quarter growth of 10 per cent this year. This, however, has been wiped out by the persistent rains. The minister explains that the country stands to lose close to J$300 million in sugar earnings, resulting from a shortfall in production, adding that the shortfall is likely to be about 30,000 tonnes and not the 20,000 tonnes previously reported. This is because farmers are unable to get their cane to the factories, and factories have to close because there is no cane to mill.