erratic weather conditions affected continuous cane supply to the factory
…as GuySuCo refuses to come clean on operations The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) yesterday blocked Kaieteur News from having a tour of the Enmore Packaging Plant, reversing an earlier commitment.NO WAY! Guards even tried to prevent Kaieteur News reporters from taking photos at the Enmore facility yesterday.It was only on Tuesday that the Corporation acknowledged that the Packaging Plant accommodated a request by Kaieteur News for a visit two Saturdays ago “with an understanding that the newspaper will return on full resumption of operations.”The Corporation announced in a press release Tuesday that the plant had resumed operations two Wednesdays ago.Kaieteur News’ reporters decided to visit yesterday, but were met by two guards on duty who said that they were instructed not to let reporters in. Calls to the managers of the factory went unanswered.When Kaieteur News visited the plant two Saturdays ago, it was closed to operations, as there was no sugar to package.Managers Yudhisthir Persaud and Akbar Ally said that the plant was out of operation because the sugar being produced at Enmore was meeting bulk export demands. No other reason was given.The Corporation had admitted that the plant was out of operation and had been for the entire of the first crop up to the point when Kaieteur News first visited a week and a half ago.As access to the plant was blocked, Kaieteur News was unable to ascertain the claims by the Corporation that the plant was once again in operation.GuySuCo was peeved by a Sunday Kaieteur News report which stated that the US$12.5M plant was sitting idle as the corporation sought to meet demands for bulk sugar.When asked about the sensibility of having the plant sit idle, Mr. Ally told Kaieteur News that it was either GuySuCo lose the market for bulk sugar or lose the market for packaged sugar. In this case, he said, the Corporation chose to meet its demand for bulk sugar, and as a result there was no sugar to meet the market for packaged sugar.Kaieteur News was unable to ascertain the claims by GuySuCo that the plant was once again in operation.Mr. Persaud also indicated to Kaieteur News that the packaged sugar does not bring in significantly more revenue than the bulk sugar.In a press release, GuySuCo gave a different story to the one given by the managers about why the plant was not in operation. It said that grinding operations commenced at Enmore on July 31, 2012 and that during the period of July 31 to August 18, erratic weather conditions affected continuous cane supply to the factory, hence sugar production and “sugar flow-through” on recently maintained equipment was reduced.It said that factory equipment underwent significant maintenance work during the last out-of-crop period and it is standard operating practice for a sugar plant of this nature to ensure that the first batches of sugar be directed to bulk (bulk is intended for re-processing) after a maintenance period (especially a major one). This period allows for operational “fine-tuning” and to guarantee product consistency for direct consumption sugar required for the packaging plant, GuySuCo stated.The Corporation said that it is on this basis that managers advised that the plant has been focusing on bulk production.The Kaieteur News reporter who filed the story was accompanied by two other reporters. The managers never spoke of anything that GuySuCo mentioned regarding the reason why the plant was non-operational. The only reason given was that the sugar was being exported by bulk and they had no idea when they would receive orders to re-start the plant. |