The government has published its information memorandum on the Skeldon Sugar Estate for privatisation but questions might be raised about the declared capacity of 110,000 tonnes which has never been met since it went into operation in 2009.
Failure to attain its inscribed capacity of 116,000 tonnes of sugar per annum was the major shortcoming of the PPP/C’s Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Plan which ended up crippling the Berbice estate through high losses and low production. This in turn punched major holes in GuySuCo’s finances.
In its information memorandum on the Skeldon sugar estate, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) highlighted as one of its major features “1,750 hectares of freehold land with 110,000 tonnes sugar capacity”. Controversially built by the Chinese company, CNTIC, the US$110m Skeldon factory never got anywhere close to the annual figure of 116,000 tonnes despite costly interventions several years ago by a South African firm. The failure to attain a grinding figure of 350 tonnes of cane per hour and 116,000 tonnes of sugar per annum put the then Jagdeo administration under severe pressure and the situation persisted all through the Ramotar administration and the first two years of the Granger administration until the factory was shut at the end of last year preparatory to divestment/privatisation.