Minister of Agriculture Leslie Ramsammy said yesterday that the flagship Skeldon Sugar Factory is not operating at full capacity because of a number of factors, some of them outside of the control of the company.
He was at the time responding to questions posed to him in the National Assembly during a sitting held yesterday.
Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, Member of Parliament of the PPP/C asked Minister Ramsammy during the time slot for oral questions on notice whether the factory is working to its capacity.
“I am informed that there are a number of faults that the Skeldon Sugar Factory is encountering; can the Honourable Minister say if this is so, and, if this is the case, are these being addressed?
“Can the Minister state what the present performance of the factory is? How much cane is needed to produce one ton of sugar in comparison with the last crop?” he asked.
“What acreage of cane expansion is yet to be completed in order to supply the factory with sufficient canes for it to perform at maximum capacity?
If there are further repairs to be undertaken at the factory what will it entail? Dr. Mahadeo asked.
He also asked whether there are any systems in place to have continuous maintenance at the facility and whether or not the Skeldon factory was providing any power to the national grid.
Ramsammy in response said that the planned re-designed work being done by the South African company Bosch Projects after the second crop should see output being improved to about 85 percent.
The minister said that the last crop saw an improved tons cane to tons sugar (TCTS) ratio of 19.6. Ramsammy said that the company is generating electricity and supplying to the national grid at an average of 5.5 to 6 megawatts during the off peak and between 8 and 10 megawatts at peak.
He said that the additional generating capacity supplied at peak comes in part from bagasse.
He said Bosch is also doing modifications of the condensate tank and the modification of the cane conveyor. However he said that the modification of the punt dumper is not a part of the Bosch contract.
The Minister expressed the hope that the fortunes of the sugar factory will be constantly improved through an ongoing programme of maintenance.
He said that acreage is one of the reasons for the low output of the factory and that there are a total of 2,600 hectares remaining to be brought into operation.
“I stand here today to say that the Skeldon Factory is still not working to capacity,” he said.
“ Some of it had to do with matters external to the factory. It is operating to 60 to 65 percent,” he said.
“In terms of the performance of the factory the last crop … was the better crop since the new factory started to work and which is consistent with the level of the old Skeldon Factory output,” he said.
He said that 782 hectares of this 2,600 are located within the estate property and 1,845 are private cane farmers’ property.
The Skeldon factory was built by the Chinese company China National Technology Import and Export Corp. Work began on the factory in 2005 and it was expected that the project would have been completed by October 2007. The commissioning date was pushed back several times until the end of 2008.
The old Skeldon factory was rated at 92 tonnes of cane per hour while the new factory has the capacity to process 350 tonnes per hour.
