The Guyana Sugar Corporation has made the decision to once again keep the US$110M Skeldon factory going until it meets its modest 17,200-tonne first crop target as the estate has struggled to make 30 percent of it so far, sources say.
This newspaper was informed that Skeldon will keep grinding well past the remaining four weeks of the crop if necessary to reach its target to stave of continued criticisms over the beleaguered factory’s problems.
Not only did the factory commence the first crop later than the other seven sugar estates, coming on board in the week of March 15, 2015, but the continued issues with the punt dump have stalled grinding on numerous occasions. This newspaper was told that it is currently operating at half capacity but management does not want to disclose the extent of the problem to the public.
Last year the corporation laboured to meet the estate’s 13,795 tonnes first crop target, at times grinding less than seven tonnes of sugar daily. When it was first conceptualised, the Skeldon factory was intended to produce around 117,000 tonnes of sugar per annum. It is producing nowhere near this.
So far, GuySuCo has produced roughly 60,000 tonnes of the 86,201-tonne first crop target raising concerns over whether or not the first crop target will be met.
The state-owned company has not officially disclosed its targets and sources told Stabroek News that only the first crop target of 86,201 tonnes of sugar has been circulated.
Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy had told state media that the 2015 production target is 240,000 tonnes but GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer Raj Singh refused to confirm the figure to Stabroek News. Sources said that only Singh and management in the Industrial Relations Department have been provided with the annual target.
On April 1, prior to a press conference and the disclosure that Skeldon’s power assets were sold to Skeldon Energy Incorporated (SEI), Singh did not take the opportunity to clarify the 2015 production target.
During the press conference, he brushed off questions related to the current status of sugar production and the financial crisis the industry is in. He told reporters that a separate press briefing would be held in the near future to respond to the questions. To date there has been no official statement from the sugar company alerting the media of any such planned meeting.
While the corporation continues to be evasive in the release of information that should be made readily available to the public, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union has expressed frustration that fertiliser application continues to be off resulting in poor quality canes.
Harvesters at Albion estate recently downed their tools after being told to harvest from two locations, one of which was said to have cane of poor quality. GAWU said that harvesters wanted to concentrate on the area with high yielding cane before moving on.
Head of GAWU, Komal Chand said that the union was made to understand that fertiliser application is not done in a timely manner. He said that this is a direct result of fertiliser supplies being late. Chand stated that the timing for the fertilisation of cane is defined and as a result the corporation should be well aware of the time necessary to arrange for supplies.
GuySuCo traditionally sets its two crop targets at a 40:60 ratio which would ultimately result in an annual production target of 215,502 tonnes for this year, well below the minister’s 240,000 tonnes claim.
According to the 2013-2017 Strategic Plan, the target for 2015 was supposed to be 312,871 tonnes with a first crop target at 125,148 tonnes.
Earlier this year it was revealed that a revised Strategic Plan would be prepared, however to date no such document has been released.
GuySuCo was able to surpass the 2014 first crop target of 75,000 tonnes, finishing the crop late with over 80,000 tonnes of sugar. In 2013 the sugar company recorded its worst first crop ever of 48,000 tonnes.
