While government has pledged to generate new employment opportunities at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, sugar production at the East Demerara Estate (EDE) is over at this point, a source close to the government told Stabroek News yesterday.
Plans are for the facility to be converted into an agro-industrial area and lands are being set aside for housing and other purposes. The PPP/C had promised in its manifesto to reopen the EDE and will have to make an announcement at some point.
“The current way everything is being moved I cannot foresee sugar being produced there,” the source yesterday told Stabroek News when asked about the future of the estate.
The estate is one of four that were closed during the David Granger-led APNU+AFC Coalition government tenure. While in opposition and on the March 2020 Regional and General Elections campaign trail, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic vowed to reopen the shuttered estates in regions Three, Four, and Six. The Wales estate had been completely dismantled and there was no prospect of restoring it.
There has been no official word from government or GuySuCo on the reopening plans of the EDE and whether it will be engaged in sugar production.
The source stated that the initial projection to restart activities at EDE was for high-value agricultural products. The vision, the source disclosed, “is to make it into a more agro-industrial area so as you get products off the land it goes into a processing plant… juice manufacturing for example…”
A subsidiary of Surina-mese-owned Rudisa Inc, Caribbean International Distributors Inc (CIDI) last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Guyana’s Office for Investment (G-Invest) for the development of a US$35 million agro-processing facility at Enmore.
A joint release from G-Invest and Rudisa, released by the Department of Public Information on the day of the signing, stated that the facility is expected to engage in the production and packaging of various products, ranging from milk, natural fruit juices and water, to a variety of bread products, such as hamburger rolls, biscuits, cookies, croissants, bagels and donuts, to supply Guyana’s local and export markets.
The release added that the facility will employ approximately 600 persons and will be a significant boost to the businesses of local fruit and dairy farmers, who will be the chief suppliers, and Guyana’s capacity for the large scale production of packaged fruit and dairy products.
No other information has been shared on the progress of this investment since its announcement last August. At its height, the EDE employed around 2,000 persons.
Critics have been questioning the plans for the EDE following the announcement last week of a deal between local machining company, Guysons, and its United States partner, equipment manufacturer K&B Indus-tries, and government.
Various figures have been given for the joint venture which will transform the sugar packaging plant into a fabrication facility for the oil & gas industry. In the venture, the company will take possession of 55 acres of EDE lands.
The East Coast Deme-rara packaging plant had been built in 2011 at a cost of US$12 million with part-financing from the European Union. While creating jobs, the joint venture deal also represents the privatisation of a key GuySuCo asset which had once been played up as a money spinner.
Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha on Tuesday told Stabroek News that the deal does not “interfere with the estate.”
“…This [deal] is with the packaging plant and we were thinking to relocate it to Albion because Albion is the premier estate grinding sugar… I don’t know why people blowing the thing out of proportion… Whatsoever was there [East Demerara Estate] remain in place we didn’t interfere with nothing else,” he told Stabroek News before directing additional questions to GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sasenarine Singh. Calls to Singh went unanswered yesterday.
Nonetheless, the source explained that according to GuySuCo’s calculations, even if the EDE was to return to sugar production it would have been challenging to find markets to retail to.
Sugar is currently being produced for the highest value markets internationally and based on the research, that market requires 100,000 metric tons of sugar. On this note, the source stated that with the three grinding estates and Rose Hall scheduled to return to operation during the latter half of 2023, GuySuCo will be able to meet its targets easily.
“Where will you put the additional sugar? You cannot dump it on the world market, you are going to be walking into a trap,” the source pointed out.
Further, it was pointed out that the plans for the reopening of the shuttered estates after the Irfaan Ali-led government took office was to be done in phases subsequent to assessment.
Following the assessments it was determined that the Wales Estate will not be reopened and efforts were directed to reopen the Skeldon and Rose Hall Estates.
GAWU’s President Seepaul Narine in a letter to Stabroek News in October 2020, said that sugar industry assets were left to rot at the three shuttered estates.
“At Enmore I saw with my own eyes, how equipment was apparently chopped up and stripped away and seemingly carted off. I learnt at Enmore that several pieces of equipment cannot be accounted for as it appears to have vanished.
“I learnt too that at Enmore despite extensive checks, hundreds of steel punts have disappeared. As I walked through those estates, I wondered what really transpired and how could millions, if not billions, of the Guyanese people’s assets just disappear. I wondered whether they were sold off and if the monies can be accounted for?” he said in the letter in which he explained that he was given the opportunity to tour the factories in preparation for their reopening.
At present, 50 per cent of works to refurbish and rehabilitate the Rose Hall estate have been completed and all other works will be completed in time for its reopening. Retrofitting works had also commenced at Skeldon Estate.
