This GuySuCo Director is publicizing his ignorance

Aug 09, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr. E.B. John’s letter to print media (Aug. 3rd, 2017) titled “Letter was full of assumptions”. Editor, it is clear that, this GuySuCo Director is bent on either propagandizing subjects or publicizing his ignorance, incompetence & stupidity – words of Anthony Vieira. Based on the questions Mr. John posed I am compelled to provide a response to ensure that this nation is not poisoned with pure nonsense emanating from a high corporate office.
Firstly, if Mr. John has a modicum of research skill or simple courtesy to enquire from Estate or Ministry of Agriculture staff, he would learn that the Albion ethanol plant is a joint project involving the Ministry of Agriculture and GuySuCo and funded mainly by Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through a technical cooperation (TC) to assist Government of Guyana in defining a critical path for the Agro-Energy sector through support of small scale bio-energy demonstration programmes and dissemination of results. In other words, the IDB, in support of Government’s efforts, assessed the project, and approved funding to support an intended policy position on Agro-Energy.
The end-result is a model plant that employs technologies from Brazil and Canada at a cost that was publicized in the media. Apart from achieving each project objective such as flows, ethanol quality, percent fuel blend, blend quality, etc. the plant produced ethanol continuously for GuySuCo’s internal use until mid-2015. In addition to this, it served as a training and investigative ground for a number of University of Guyana students who completed final year research papers for their Bachelor’s Degree programme, doing specific studies in the various processes employed. Mr. John, the Albion ethanol plant became “non-operational” and is in “non-production” mode after mid-2015 because GuySuCo’s uniquely incompetent CEO dictated that operations cease. This is a certain fact.
Secondly, the outdated technologies being referred to in sugar factories and the need for replacements are not unique to a sugar factory in Guyana. Typically, the transition of factory from a producer of one type of product to another takes many years and huge capital sums. In our case, that process commenced with Blairmont facility in the early 2000’s to upgrade it from a raw bulk producer to a direct consumption producer, a process which continued on in the 2008-20011 period at the Enmore facility. In a rather mind-boggling way, GuySuCo has chosen to close operations of its most equipped direct consumption factory at end of 2017. This is a certain fact.
Thirdly, the Skeldon Factory will always appear as a puzzle to the incompetent. The present CEO of GuySuCo was a Director for the company that designed Skeldon Factory, supervised its construction & testing and final handing over. If it is now a puzzle for him, then, that explains the uniqueness of his incompetence. In any case, he is quite familiar with the Skeldon puzzle. That is a certain fact.
Fourthly, to use the Brazil example to seemingly argue a position that ethanol may not be a good option is rather disingenuous. It is simply because Brazil’s industry is equipped with factories capable of directing its juice from sugar to ethanol or vice versa at a moments’ notice depending on market prices. That is a certain fact. Mr. John, can you answer the questions in my previous letter?
Sookram Persaud

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