Ethanol production is economically feasible – Greenidge

Mar 19, 2014 News

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When the current state of affairs in the sugar industry is considered, some members of the opposition have opined that if it were to get much worse or fail, possible diversification to ethanol production and aquaculture would be viable alternatives.
Only recently, Anthony Vieira, agricultural expert of the political opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), in an invited comment expressed this notion, and it has been supported by APNU’s Shadow Minister of

Finance, Carl Greenidge.
While the idea of the venture has been the root cause of heated comments by the Guyana Cane Farming Committee and even the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who asserts that the government’s plan is to develop both the ailing sugar industry and aqua farming, Greenidge has categorically stated that ethanol production is a “most viable venture”.
The Parliamentarian asserted that even the most successful plan must have the necessary or right environment for all the elements to work cohesively, thereby allowing all to reap the economic benefits.
“We must now rid the sector of its agronomic problems in order that the benefits from such a viable programme can be had.”
Greenidge was asked to comment on Vieira’s position due to his background in Agricultural Economics, a subject he lectured on for some time overseas. He said that the sugar industry has been severely damaged by two problems: incompetent management caused by political interference and incompetently investing money in the processing aspect of the industry.
“The sugar industry has suffered damage as a result of incompetent management caused by political interference and that is just one side. In fact, there has been damage done on two fronts and that is just one. The other is that they have taken the money which we had generated and received from the overseas-based markets and invested it in the processing side, but because that was done incompetently, the benefits for processing are far less than they should be.
“In fact it is a burden now. It is also true that the field operations are struggling and they are struggling because of poor management and interference, and what Vieira has done is to say well…because the factory side is so inefficient when it comes to sugar, maybe you can consider diversifying the industry in other ways which are more efficient and less problematic. And one of these ways is ethanol production.
“I also wish to stress that he never said to close the sugar industry. One must not be blind to the fact that we are not even meeting our expected production figures…and we are losing millions.”
Greenidge continued: “We have been producing sugar cane for a long time and therefore compared to the rest of the region, and even Brazil, Guyana’s sugar industry is by far and without question, ridiculously behind time. Between the management and the natural characteristics of Guyana, we should have an advantage in the production of sugar cane.
“We should have been modernized and properly managed, and tripling our production, but considering that the sugar industry has contracted so many “diseases” such as poor management, ethanol would be a good way to turn until we can sort out this nonsense that has us producing poorly despite the millions being pumped into the system. Ethanol would be a good product, because fuel prices are already high and you would get good returns from producing cane which generates ethanol. If rum prices were good, too, we could have concentrated on producing molasses.”
Greenidge also stressed that while based on his research he would support the introduction of the ethanol production, as it is economically feasible for the country, the management problem must be dealt with or else “all the solutions will not be able to save the industry if the government doesn’t understand that its interference does more harm than good, if any good at all.”
He added that studies on ethanol within the region, as well as globally, have been conducted but it is not a matter of getting a specialized study carried out for the sake of Guyana. Rather, it is for those in the executive to decide when they are ready for solutions.
“I don’t think a special study needs to be carried out; we need to improve the efficiency of field operations so that whatever cane is produced it is done so efficiently, and whatever course we advance on, it would not be held back by these problems.
“If you fix the agronomic problems you can be competitive, especially as it relates to ethanol production, because the country is a major importer of fuel. With ethanol production, the country will stand to benefit, and one obvious example is that we would not have to import from other countries so the transport cost would be eliminated. With that happening we can then concentrate on producing ethanol and mixing it with petroleum and decide in which areas we will use it and benefit most.
“We have no option but to seek other avenues before all our foreign exchange earners fall flat on their faces, and we aren’t far from that stage either,” Greenidge concluded.

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