Persaud says: Management ‘monkeying around’ with Skeldon

Oct 13, 2011 News

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Foreign management still on the cards

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud yesterday accused the management of the Skeldon sugar factory of “monkeying around”. He said that he wants the factory to grind as it was built to.
Bringing in foreign managers to manage the factory is still on the cards, but Persaud said it depends on GuySuCo to decide how this will go–whether to choose complete or partial management from outsiders.
“The reality is that we need expertise in place to fix some of the nags, some of the issues that are complicating the problems at Skeldon.
“We just don’t have it in house,” Persaud declared at a ceremony held to announce a revolving fund to get private cane farmers to boost production.
Persaud expressed frustration that the problems at Skeldon have not been properly defined.

“…You have that level of expectation that they would come up with some surety as to what it is that needs to be done; stop monkeying around with the damn factory,” he declared.

The Skeldon Factory, on which an estimated US$200 million was spent, continues to be a headache for the government desperate to prove that it is indeed the boon to not only the survival but also the viability of the local sugar industry.
The Indo-Guyanese based work force of the sugar industry has meant solid support for the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which is seeking its fifth consecutive victory at the polls.
Persaud boasted of the PPP government’s commitment to sugar, and threw jabs at the opposition, accusing them of wanting to shut down the industry.
But at the heart of sugar’s success is Skeldon, which could help to achieve production goals.
Persaud said that GuySuCo needs to produce 300,000 tonnes of sugar annually to be profitable and Skeldon is being looked at as the answer to the under-production that has been squeezing the industry of its juice.
The Skeldon factory was commissioned two years ago, but has never been fully functional and the problems keep mounting.
“The goal is to get the factory performing to the level that it was designed and built for,” Persaud stated.
Persaud said there is a plan to have those problems corrected; the “diagnostics” have been done.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Paul Bhim, said that back in April, GuySuCo commissioned a study that was conducted by a South African firm. That study made over 50 recommendations. Bhim said that the management has been caught in a quagmire when it comes to implementing those recommendations.
“We certainly can’t shut the factory down, leave the canes in the fields, and concentrate on fixing the factory while we have a crop on,” he stated.
As a result, he said that fixing the problems at Skeldon is a gradual process that will have to be dealt with during the out-of-crop season.
He said that the process house at the factory has been giving “quite a few problems” causing losses in sugar production. To help fix the problem, experts in fields of technology and general process house techniques would be arriving next week.
The overseas experts are being brought in at the expense of Tate and Lyle, GuySuCo’s largest customer. This year, Tate and Lyle is expected to buy 195,000 tonnes of sugar.
In addition, Bhim said that the punt dumper has been a bugbear since the factory started operations. He pointed out that representatives from the US manufacturers of the punt dumper are expected in early November and it is hoped that substantial work would be done to fix the problems during the out-of-crop season.
Owing to the number of problems that has plagued the factory since its opening, the workers union, GAWU, has been agitating for the problems to be fixed so the factory could realize its potential.
The Corporation had set the end of next year to get the factory going at full speed.
Last November, GAWU called for Skeldon factory to be closed down until the China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC), the entity, which constructed the factory, fixed the problems.
The opening of the factory came just over a month before Guyana, and the rest of the countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of countries, lost their preferential market access for its sugar to Europe.
The industry is already reeling from the reduced price Europe began paying for its sugar in 2006. At the start of last year, the price cut went to the full 36 percent Europe imposed.
The sugar industry directly sustains some 18,000 jobs, and when that is multiplied to include their families, it means that sugar supports a fifth of the country’s entire population. Sugar exports account for as much as 20 percent of the country’s annual revenue.
The Corporation was targeting the end of this year to complete all land development and planting and expects to have in this period the 1.2 million tonnes of cane required by the new factory. Estate cultivation of sugarcane will have to grow to 9,600 hectares.
The factory was constructed with a combination of self-generated funds and loans from the Caribbean Development Bank, the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Guyana. The Project Engineer was Booker Tate, UK Ltd and the Contractor was CNTIC Ltd.

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