THE government has agreed to pay long-promised compensation to former private sugar cane farmers, ending a decade-long dispute over payments after the shutdown of Caroni (1975) Ltd under the Manning administration.

The settlement follows a High Court hearing in which the Office of the Attorney General consented to an order resolving 256 claims brought by former farmers seeking enforcement of a compensation package approved by Cabinet in December 2014.

The original Cabinet decision authorised a $130 million compensation package as a final settlement arising from the 2007 transition out of the sugar industry. The payments were structured in three tranches: an initial $27 million from the European Union under the Accompanying Measures of the Sugar Protocol Programme under the Multi-Annual Indicative Programme 2011-2013; a second tranche of $75 million upon receipt of 8 million euros from the European Union in 2015; and a final tranche of $28 million in 2016.