Pan Caribbean Sugar Company donates 3 tons of sugar worth $500,000 JMD to Jamaica Red Cross for COVID-19 relief

On April 10, 2020, Pan Caribbean Sugar Company Limited (PCSC), a Jamaica-based subsidiary of Hua Lien International Holding Co. Ltd., itself a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned China National Complete Plant Import Export Corporation (COMPLANT), donated 3 metric tons of sugar to Jamaica Red Cross (JRC) worth $500,000 JMD. The purpose of this donation was to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sugar was to be included in the food packages that the JRC would then distribute to those in need across Jamaica.

Additional details

1. There is disagreement amidst the sources on the value of this donation. Harvard's "China’s Foreign Aid Political Drivers: Lessons from a Novel Dataset of Mask Diplomacy in Latin America During the COVID-19 Pandemic" dataset estimates it to be worth $1,101 USD (see: Source ID# 156142). A news report from the Daily Observer (Jamaica) reports this amount to be $500,000 JMD (see: Source ID# 169704). AidData has coded $500,000 JMD as the transaction amount, because this figure is specifically given by the local press. 2. In 2010, International Sugar Industry Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of COMPLANT, acquired the three largest Jamaican state-owned sugar factories (Frome, Monymusk, and Bernard Lodge) for $9 million USD. COMPLANT created Jamaica-incorporated Pan Caribbean Sugar Company Limited (PCSC) to manage this acquisition.

Number of official sources

0

Number of total sources

3