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Apr 04, 2014 News
“Sugar will not be exchanged for ethanol” – Ramsammy
After relating to the House the success story of the rice industry in 2013, Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy announced that sugar will make a turnaround this year and that some of the $6B bailout being requested for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will be plugged into the ailing Skeldon Factory.
The bailout has generated significant concerns on the part of political opposition, and in seeking to provide answers, Dr. Ramsammy last evening told the House that the $6B will be geared towards the mechanization drive of the industry, “a drive that seeks to address the smaller labour pool that the industry now relies on and to improve on cane yields in 2014…Land conversion costs will account for $1.1B with 2,500 hectares of land slated to be converted in 2014.”
According to Dr. Ramsammy, another $1B will be expended on the tillage and replanting programme this year with 9,600 hectares of land to be tilled and 9,224 hectares to be planted.
The Minister said too, investments will also be made in all-weather roads in all cultivations to improve on accessibility and timeliness of cane delivery to factories.
He said that a portion of the $6B will be spent on capital programmes at the various factories, including the replacement of old and outdated pumps, improvement of factory automation at Albion, work on two punt dumpers at Skeldon and the upgrade of boilers at Uitvlugt.
As it relates to the Skeldon Factory, the Minister said that despite accusations that no electricity was being generated and supplied to the national grid; this was not the case, as during grinding hours a total of 8MW is produced.
“It is not an understatement to say that Skeldon has not functioned to expectation…Nevertheless, we continue to make progress in sorting out the issues at Skeldon.”
According to the Minister, for this first crop in 2014, the factory has increased on the tons of cane processed per hour.
“The factory has also improved tremendously with its weekly grinding hours, with an average of 140 hours per week so far this crop…There is already a 25 per cent improvement in sugar recovery.”
The Minister said too that despite the dire performances of sugar in recent years, 2014 will see a recovery.
In his report to the House, Dr. Ramsammy said that after three years of failing to reach its targets, GuySuCo is set to meet its target this year.
“In the first five weeks, GuySuCo has already reached 45,000 tons or an average of 9,000 tons per week.”
The Minister was adamant that the sugar industry will not be allowed to fail and “will continue as a major pillar of our development.”
“We will continue to build the sugar industry to continue its role as a lead industry in our country and we will work with the sugar workers to ensure that their industry continues to provide employment and economic and social gains for our people and our country.”
According to the Minister of Agriculture, “those who harbour thoughts of the closure of the sugar industry are dead wrong…For those who harbour any thoughts of an exchange of sugar for tilapia or for ethanol, our answer is unequivocal: sugar, in bulk and value-added forms, will continue to be a primary product.”
The Minister said this is not the first time that sugar is in distress, but GuySuCo will recover and 2014 will mark a turning point in its performance of GuySuCo.
“We have made major changes in management and we have identified the members of the new board that will take control from July 1st.”
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