MEDIA personnel were on Friday treated to a tour of the Enmore sugar factory and packaging plant as part of Agriculture Month activities. Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said the event was organized mainly to clear up some confusion surrounding the plant, and also to demonstrate that it is indeed in operation.

“Like all new plants, it has had its teething problems; but as of right now, the Enmore packaging plant is working to expectations,” he said.

Explaining that the Enmore packaging plant is designed to produce approximately 40,000 tonnes of packaged sugar annually, he said at the moment it is working with sugar left back after bulk sugar quotas have been met.
Dr. Ramsammy said the plant began operating only in the second crop of 2011, and produced approximately 3,000 tonnes for that crop. Moreover, the plant has, to date, produced approximately 10,000 tonnes of packaged sugar.

He noted that GuySuCo’s main contractual obligation is production of bulk sugar, and only after those obligations have been fulfilled would the excess be sent for packaging.

The minister said a separate contractual arrangement exists for packaged sugar, which is used in Guyana and in Caricom and extra-regional countries.

In addition to Demerara Gold sugar, Dr. Ramsammy revealed, a new product — Demerara Brown sugar — is also being produced and packaged at Enmore. This Demerara Brown sugar has not yet been released locally, but is being exported to the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

“We have not yet launched that line on the Guyanese market; but that will, a short time from now, be a new product launched on the local market,” he stated.

He pointed out that the Trinidadians have responded very well to the new brand of sugar, and production at Enmore will accordingly be increased to meet new demands.

Moreover, all packaged sugar in Guyana is, at this time, coming from the Enmore and Blairmont packaging plants; and for the year thus far, more than 20,000 tonnes of sugar have been packaged.
“The more sugar we package and sell, the more the financial resources (will be increased); and that is why GuySuCo is moving in a direction where we will be increasing the proportion of value-added products,” Dr. Ramsammy disclosed.

He noted that the Enmore packaging plant was so built that more lines can be added to increase its capacity; and furthermore, plans are underway to increase its capacity from 40,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, Minister Ramsammy has advised that the Skeldon sugar factory is currently working at optimum production, even without intervention of Bosch, the South African firm which has been contracted to execute modification works on the factory.

According to the minister, the modification works will not begin until after this crop. Nevertheless, the reason for this good performance of the Skeldon estate is the change in weather.