Sugar industry already benefiting from reforms, Thomas says

- weekly target surpassed again

Chairman of the Guyana Sugar Cor-poration (GuySuCo), Dr Clive Thomas says that the sugar industry is already benefitting from recommendations that were made prior to and during the Commis-sion of Inquiry (CoI) into the sector.

He said the weekly production values have seen significant increases and strides being made to realise the various estates’ full potential. The CoI report has been submitted to the government and its findings are being awaited.

Speaking to Stabroek News on Sunday, Thomas stated that the US$200 million Skeldon Estate inclusive of the US$110 million Skeldon factory have seen more gains this year than ever before.

Clive Thomas
Clive Thomas

For the second week in a row Skeldon surpassed its highest weekly and daily productions, according to the sugar corporation. The company reported that for the week ending October 23 “Skeldon Factory recorded its highest weekly and daily production, 2,980 tonnes and 550 tonnes of sugar respectively, since its commissioning.”

In a press statement on Sunday, GuySuCo stated, “In addition, the factory crushed an average 6,010 tonnes of canes daily, versus 8,400 tonnes, representing 72% of the design capacity of the plant.”

The Skeldon factory has for years been a major drag on the finances of GuySuCo. It has been responsible for pushing up the average cost of production. Its original rated crushing capacity when launched in 2008 was 350 tonnes of cane per hour and annual output from this factory alone was expected to be 100,000+ tonnes. It has operated far below these benchmarks.

The corporation’s statement said that in addition to Skeldon, the Albion, Blairmont and Wales estates all surpassed their weekly production targets while Rose Hall and Enmore achieved 94% and 97% respectively.

The current production for the second crop sits at 104,461 tonnes which is 71.4% of the estimate for the crop. This brings the annual figure so far for 2015 to 185,604 tonnes which GuySuCo says is 81.6% of the estimate for sugar for the entire year. This figure is modest compared to GuySuCo’s production in its peak years.

Due to the performance by the estates, the weekly target of 10,000 tonnes was surpassed by 76 tonnes.

The statement by GuySuCo also said that Skeldon’s cogeneration plant exported to the Guyana Power and Light Inc 1,606,000 KWh of electricity, bringing the year-to-date value to 31,858,000 KWh. The weekly output has increased significantly from the week prior which was 1,213,000 KWh of electricity using bagasse fuel.

The corporation is still in talks to buy back the cogeneration plant from the special interest company Skeldon Energy Inc (SEI) that purchased the plant earlier this year under the PPP/C administration. Thomas had previously told Stabroek News that by taking the plant “…out of the equation, you are reducing, significantly, the income that can be generated out of Skeldon.”

He had noted that a request was sent to the Minister of Agriculture to halt the sale and the full transfer to SEI, but that this process was likely to take time.

Six estates continue to grind as Uitvlugt competed its crop as of October 17 due to a lack of canes.