GuySuCo has announced that the Skeldon factory will start processing canes on August 5, more than a week after its scheduled start, due to “extremely wet conditions” at the estate.
In statement released yesterday, GuySuCo noted that the estate was originally scheduled to start its crop on July 26. The statement came following a report in yesterday’s Stabroek News that there was no reaping or grinding at Skeldon despite the poor production so far this year. Prior to yesterday there had been no announcement from GuySuCo about work at Skeldon.
On Wednesday Komal Chand, the head of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) announced that a harvesting and grinding schedule was presented by GuySuCo. According to the GuySuCo statement, “the production schedule that the GAWU President referred to cited Skeldon to have originally starting its crop on July 26, and this was communicated to the relevant personnel on the estate. The factory is now expected to commence processing canes on 5th August.”
The statement added that “the crop is expected to be completed by mid-November, which is well before the onset of the usual December rains.”
GuySuCo stated that the mechanised harvesters could not operate with the current wet conditions and the factory could not rely on manual harvesting to “keep the factory fully supplied with cane.”
Although the state-owned corporation cited the inclement weather as being the primary reason for the late start, questions remain over whether the various issues at the factory have been fixed and whether there is enough cane on the ground for the factory to operate in a cost-effective manner.
Chand told Stabroek News that the amount of cane on the ground could be a factor in the factory’s production level and that has been a recurring issue in the years past. He said that he was, however, optimistic that once Skeldon started grinding, it would perform.
Chand also said that since 2009, Skeldon’s performance has attracted criticism and the corporation needed to be more forthcoming about what was happening. He said that he did not wish to comment on whether the factory would perform at maximum capacity (grinding 350 tonnes of cane per hour) but added that he was hopeful that its usual 50 percent grinding capacity was significantly higher.
The head of GAWU said that the union was not necessarily privy to the information regarding the number of canes in the ground at this date but said that he was inclined to know that information. He noted that GuySuCo had to realise that being more forthcoming would alleviate the public’s concern.
GuySuCo admitted that the Wales estate was also behind schedule and would begin harvesting by August 8. The corporation stated that “the delayed start by Wales is attributed to the need to retube the #4 boiler and harmonising of the cane age due to a late start in the 2nd crop of last year.”
The 2013 second crop was originally slated to commence harvesting in the beginning of June however that date was pushed back until the last week of the same month, with the weather being cited as the main reason. The Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy stated that due to the dismal first crop of 48,000 tonnes of sugar, GuySuCo was aiming for a head start in the second crop.
GuySuCo needs to produce 192,000 tonnes of sugar in the second crop to reach its 240,000 production target for this year.
