Latest update January 18th, 2025 6:40 AM
Barama restarts local plywood production
Workers during a recent shift at Barama’s Land of Canaan plywood factory operations.
…warned to up harvesting in concessions
By Leonard Gildarie
The country’s plywood supplies, which took a huge dive last year after the manufacturer Barama Company Limited (BCL) ceased production in October, is expected to stabilize within weeks.
BCL officials met with the Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, yesterday and assured that production for this critical housing material will see a 50 per cent increase as compared to the period when its Land of Canaan boiler went down in October.
More than 270 staffers, some long-serving, were left without jobs. To date, the company has hired 243 workers to man the production line, including some old staffers.
Under pressure from Government to restart operations, BCL had committed to installing a smaller boiler. This was completed with production restarting on June 1.
According to Monindra Chand, BCLs Head of Corporate Affairs and Forest Planning, the operations are much more efficient now with production expected to move from the 1,600m3, where it was at the time of the boiler incident level, to 2,400m3.
He told media personnel and the Minister, that BCL will be able to improve its recovery rate by a significant 11 per cent.
BCL had blamed workers for not paying attention and allowing the boiler at the Land of Canaan site to go down because of a lack of water.
In addition to the staffers, several loggers, transportation operators and the hardware suppliers were left in the cold.
With plywood a popular material used by builders in a booming housing industry, BCL closure had hit the market hard, with hardware suppliers including Gafoors forced to import to meet market demands.
Consumers had complained of increased cost of building using substitute materials.
BCL Chief Executive Officer, Clement Ooi, believes that the company could have enough stocks to meet local demands and start exporting within weeks. He also disclosed that the company was committed to introducing other down-stream products.
According to Minister Persaud, Government’s immediate and major concern is that BCL utilize its forest concessions. He reminded the officials that there is a minimum allowable cut for forestry concession holders. BCL has been accused of not harvesting enough.
Following the closure of the plywood factory last October, President Bharrat Jagdeo had expressed concern over the standing agreements of BCL which calls for increased value-added products and less logs exports.
He warned of a review of BCL’s agreement.
Yesterday, the Agriculture Minister made it clear that while the plywood factory, is now up and running, it does not mean that the other issues are not engaging the attention of government with the parties currently engaged in discussions.
These include the actual concessions, the issue of the amount of royalties being paid and the current utilization of the concessions.
In November, Jagdeo had announced a $75,000 stipend for the laid-off BCL workers once they attend a 12-week computer class.
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