Corentyne cane farmers face ruin because of the poor performance of the Skeldon factory and the high financing charge for loans from banks.
This was the contention yesterday of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI), piling further pressure on the government to come up with solutions for the beleaguered Skeldon factory.
The government has tried to play down the problems of the Chinese-built US$110 million factory which was intended to be the saviour of the industry but has been riddled with problems since its launch in 2008.
Rated to grind 350 tonnes of cane per hour it is nowhere near this and is taking a much higher amount of cane to produce a tonne of sugar (TC/TS). This was a key problem pointed out by the Chamber yesterday.
The Chamber said that at a meeting recently held between UCCCI and Skeldon cane farmers it was reported that GuySuCo’s Skeldon factory is taking an average of 20-25 tonnes of cane to make one tonne of sugar. It said farmers had been promised that the new factory would be using an average of eight to 10 tonnes of cane to make a tonne of sugar.
The release said that as a result of this, farmers’ liability to the banks and to GuySuCo kept increasing crop after crop.
“Farmers made it clear at the meeting that unless immediate relief or solution is offered, they
