Skeldon factory output a disaster

Five years after it was launched with much fanfare, the flagship Skeldon sugar factory is only producing at 36% of expected output and the latest plan from GuySuCo projects its grinding capacity at far less than what its Chinese builder was contracted to deliver.

The poor result from the Skeldon Sugar Modernisa-tion Project (SSMP) has now forced the Guyana Sugar Corporation to scale back by 100,000 tonnes its expected annual output for the period 2013-2017 from 450,000 tonnes to 350,000 tonnes.

When it had been launched, the US$170M SSMP was meant to be the saviour of the sugar industry and to