Skeldon Sugar Factory needs to be efficient, says APNU MP Carl Greenidge
4 February 2013 – Capitol News: Guyana’s future in the sugar manufacturing sector can only be secured if we improve our efficiency and stamp out corruption. That is the position of Former Finance Minister, APNU MP Carl Greenidge. Greenidge was commenting on Guyana’s prospects in the sector in light of the European Union’s extension on the sugar quota for ACP countries which includes Guyana.
At the moment, the ACP grouping enjoys access to the EU market which is one of the largest importers of the sweet commodity and since the price cuts several years ago, the EU has committed some 1 and a quarter billion Euros to help countries adjust to the lost revenues as a result of the price cuts. The Skeldon Sugar Factory which is one of the most modern in the Caribbean, was supposed to have cushioned the effects of the price cuts but Greenidge says, it has not lived up to expectations.
Greenidge drew similarities between the Skeldon project and others being undertaken by the administration.
The EU has committed to offering help to ensure that sugar becomes more viable for producing countries and that its continued cultivation in countries like Guyana promotes employment, social services , land use and environmental restoration and macro economic stability.
Comments
When sugar fall down, the PPP coming behind it 1111Baddam bam!!!!
Sugar and spice “rice”
and all that is nice
thats what little girls are made of……
Frogs and snails
crockodile tears
thats what little boys are made of
There are so many by-products of suggar which guyana should be mass producing and exporting….opportunities opportunities !
innovation in sugar is endless…..wake up guyana wake up guyanese
lets move forward
kamptan
It is rather simplistic to dismiss the Skeldon problem as ‘a less efficient factory’ than the one(s) it replaced.
A functioning sugar factory is the result of the finely coordinated efforts of men. machinery and methods in the generation of:-
Input, which I will define as tons of cane delivered at the hoist or gantry.
Throughput – the unimpeded processing of this raw material – starting at the cane scale; and ending with…
Output; sugar in the bins or silos, awaiting shipment/sale.
In my time, 12 hours were allowed for maintenance and 156 were ‘available ,grinding time’ in a week of 168 hours, “Factory Down Time” was accounted for down to the nearest minute.
Any obstacle or bottleneck between the cane field and the ‘mill dock’ could result in an “Field out of cane” stoppage. Other stoppages could be ‘Factory out of cane’, ‘low steam’, ‘mill choke’, ‘boiler house congestion’ etc.- you get the picture?
Factory design/expansion was done in anticipation of increased cane supply, and a factory could operate ‘under capacity’ for up to three years as cane from additional acreage (estate and/or farmers) became available.
So, a scientific investigation is needed to determine cause(s) of the existing situation.
It might reveal that the problem is not in the factory at all.
It would appear that Guyana, like numerous producing countries of raw cane sugar, has failed to understand the international market and the substitution principle of adaptation to changing factors in a changing world of technology, and to a lesser extent, the implications of sugar world wide. It never ceases to amaze me, given the immediacy and access to pertinent international information, that Guyana continues to remain a bottle neck of old assumptions, ideology, and diatribe aimed at the developed nations for their lacking of progress in gaining new markets.
We know that sugar has lost its vitality as an earning commodity, and the implication of dependency on this product for export earnings, only adds to the myth that sugar is king, as it was, before substitution and a good understanding of the negative health role that sugar plays on life. Most industrialized countries are no longer interested in sugar as a primary ingredient in food and this must be inderstood. Hence, the quotas by the EU are only disengenuous and appeasing methods extended to the thoughtless managers of the dominant sugar producing countries.
It is a shame that the so-called experts in Guyana have remained myopic on sugar, while Brazil has moved to methane, ethanol and other forms of agricultural producs to generate foreign earnings. Guyana needs to wake up to the realities of the larger world and reengineer the agricultural sector to make sugar secondary to the production of ethanol and other farm products, given the availability of untapped land, while allowing free enterprise to florish without the continuous governmental intrusions/ regulations that stifles incentives and creativity.
gentlemen
your writings above will hopefully be read by the decision makers in the sugar industry….I echo your sentiments and endorse your suggestions.
DIVERSIFY to SURVIVE…SUGAR no exception.
Why even the crushed cane can be re-used to furnace its production…create energy….the technology is available …even adapt it and use it !!
DARWIN theory of evolution comes to mind….
SURVIVAL of the most “adaptable” of the species….humans.!!
“while allowing free enterprise to florish without the continuous governmental intrusions/regulations”
As a trade unionist in UK for 20 + years I question the statement above…
Joint ventures Govt/Private can work for the benefit of the masses…
I am no communist-capitalist-socialist but more of a “realist” !
If you really want to succeed you will ! How the success is achieved
depends on how determined you are.
sorry for entering into “ideology” away from politricks-economics.
GUYANA must not only diversify to survive it must also “innovate” !
my spin entirely
kamptan
The Skeldon factory is a Chinese built State of the Art Sugar Factory that has the potential to produce sugar and methanol and ethanol gases for home consumption. What happened to this new development in the sugar Industry?
a million dollar question cyril…I will wave my “magic” wand and “voila” …up comes the answer….!!
sorry brother address the question to the “head” of “sugar producers association”…what does him/her say in their “defence” !!!
If the answer is “incompetance” or naming and shaming others then
either sack them or the others named and shamed…any business
must remain competitive to survive…there is no room for complacency
in todays market place….
on reflection the issue may not be the factory and its operation…but the supply chain of “raw material” cane to the factory.
we can only speculate…
kamptan