With the new packaging plant and an ungraded factory, the Enmore sugar estate has developed into an important hub for the sugar industry and is expected to produce an estimated 30,000 tonnes of packaged sugar this year.
The new automated packaging plant has the capacity to package 30 tonnes of sugar an hour, but will not be operating at full capacity until it is upgraded. Currently, the factory has the capacity to produce 40,000 tonnes of sugar and when upgraded, 80,000 tonnes.
GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Bhim told Stabroek News last week that Project Gold, the new packaging plant, is critical to the industry’s operations because it provides an opportunity for the country’s sugar to attract a premium price overseas. “We are going to earn between 30-35 per cent more on packaged sugar when we export it and Enmore is where the sugar will come from,” Bhim said.
The operations at Enmore are large scale compared to GuySuCo’s packaging facilities at Blairmont, which only managed to produce around 8,000 tonnes of packaged sugar annually, and according to Bhim demand for packaged sugar far exceeds supply locally, regionally and internationally.
Speaking on the upgrade at Enmore and the new plant, he said new equipment was installed to boost production at the factory. The upgrade which was necessary to improve the quality of sugar produced at Enmore includes the installation of pan stirrers, syrup clarifier and a sugar dryer.
Bhim said no manual labour is involved in the packaging process at Enmore, noting that when the sugar is produced it is then fed to the bins and immediately packaged. The process, he said, runs smoothly and could take a short while depending on how much sugar is being packaged. Enmore will package sugar in quantities of 1kg, 2kg, 25kg and 50kg.
Bhim said packaged sugar has been the “success story” of the industry over the past few years, attracting higher prices in overseas markets with increasing demand. He said that many Caribbean countries are interested in buying more packaged sugar from Guyana, adding that interest is also coming from Europe, in addition to Australia, Lebanon, the United States and Canada.
He observed that buyers in Europe including Tate and Lyle, a major market for GuySuCo, are interested in the packaged sugar.
He pointed out that the bulk sugar currently being sold to overseas buyers attracts a lower price.
Project Gold will be fed with cane from the Enmore and LBI estates and according to Bhim, there is enough cane in the ground to meet the target of 30,000 tonnes of packaged sugar by year end. “Cane isn’t an issue, we have enough to meet the production target and we will get there the weather permitting,” he added.
And as he mentioned the weather, he said the first crop is likely to extend to the end of this month as GuySuCo pushes to produce 100,000 tonnes of sugar. Production numbers were just around 92,000 tonnes last week. If the industry manages to reach 100,000 tonnes it would be the first time in about ten years those numbers were achieved in a first crop.
Problems at
Skeldon
Bhim said Skeldon estate might close the first crop with canes still in the ground. “It is likely that cane at Skeldon would have to be carried over to the second crop, which means it will not make the target,” he said while noting the weather has severely affected operations at the estate.
Of all the estates, Skeldon is heavily mechanized and many of the machines are unable to function during rainy periods. Bhim would not elaborate on where production at Skeldon currently is, saying only that it would fall behind the other estates when the crop closes.
On the issue of the factory and the defects which persist, Bhim admitted that “there are still problems”. He said the damaged No1 boiler is expected to be fixed by July in time for the start of the second crop while works would be carried out at the factory during the out-of-crop season.
Bhim stressed that when both boilers are functioning again production will improve in the industry though is unlikely that all the issues at Skeldon would be resolved. Skeldon is the industry’s flagship factory which has not operated at capacity due to ongoing problems, and an inadequate supply of cane.
But cane is not an issue in the industry this year since, according to the CEO, GuySuCo has enough canes in the ground to reach the production target of just over 300,000 tonnes of sugar by year end. In addition, he said the corporation’s re-planting programme is on-stream to have sufficient cane by next year.
The industry had set a first crop target of just over 138,000 tonnes of sugar which is not likely even with the push to this month end. Bhim declined to address the possible shortfall saying he remains optimistic; but observers said it could be as much as 38,000 tonnes.
