Cajun Sugar Co-operative will move forward as Cajun Sugar Co. LLC, which will acquire the mill and other assets in exchange for assuming the co-op’s debt with CoBank, as decided in the co-op’s annual meeting March 31.

“Basically, the business structure is changing,” Cajun Sugar President Rob Judice said. “One of the reasons for changing is we’ve come to a joint venture with Craig Callier and LASUCA (Louisiana Sugarcane Co-operative).”

Under the new plan co-op members’ attorney Randon Wilson presented to the growers, LASUCA will own 15 percent of Cajun Sugar Co. LLC, also known as New Cajun, Iberia Parish sugar cane farmer Craig Callier will own another 15 percent and growers who sign 10-year contracts will own 70 percent. Judice said the group could not operate as a co-op because of the outside private ownership by Callier.

“Cajun will continue to exist to liquidate other assets and redeem its patronage equities over time,” Wilson said in an email.

Judice said Cajun fell short on tonnage by about half of its normal operation standards, and the switch to an LLC has been a six- to seven-month process.

“Last year, Cajun ground 535,000 tons,” Judice said. “Normally we do a million to 1.1 million (tons) on average for the last 15 years. We were down about half of what we normally do. That was strictly farmers leaving. They weren’t satisfied with the way things were going. It was basically time for a change.”

Judice said some of the lack of tonnage was due to adverse weather conditions, but most of the problem was farmers “not delivering with the fear of not getting paid.” Farmers were going to other Teche Area mills, Judice said.

Former chair member and retired grower Joe Judice said more than 1 million tons of cane has been committed to the 2016 crop. Wilson said the reorganization of the group will be completed within the next few weeks and “all employees of Cajun will transfer to New Cajun and normal maintenance will continue in preparation of the 2016 growing season.”

Judice estimated the initial changeover will be complete by June or July. A board has yet to be elected.

The LLC will be hiring between 40-50 workers in the near future, and a “significantly higher” number of seasonal workers.

“It maybe wasn’t where we wanted it to end up, but it was important to most of us that we keep it alive for Iberia Parish, for the sugar industry, for local people and also for the local farmers to have somewhere to deliver their cane,” Judice said. “We were on the  verge of possibly closing. Their proposal was pretty much our only choice. We had a few other choices but nothing that could have really worked.”