Enmore Packaging Plant is working to expectations – Agri Minister

By Samuel Sukhnandan

Amid concerns raised about the general operation of the Enmore Packaging Plant, Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy said the recently-built factory is in full operation, but it will be some five to eight years before it starts to function in its full capacity. Dr Ramsammy made this statement on Friday, during a tour of the facility for members of the local media.

According to him, while the packaging plant had encountered some technical issues at the beginning, it is now performing well. The agriculture minister noted that the tour was organised to include the media, so as to put to rest reports that the packaging plant was not functional.
“As of right now, the Enmore Packaging Plant is working to expectations,” Dr Ramsammy said. The full capacity of the packaging plant is 40,000 tonnes of packaged sugar, a production target it is yet to meet. The minister said production depends on many factors such as the availability of canes and other factors which affect the entire industry, including bad weather. “This amount can be expanded, to produce more and this will be looked at later,” he explained.
Guyana, he said, has other obligations and is forced to look at producing bulk sugar for the European market first. Guyana currently produces and exports in excess of 200,000 tonnes of bulk sugar to that market, while the Enmore Packaging Plant has been able to produce some 10,000 tonnes of sugar so far.
Dr Ramsammy said, “Our main contractual obligation is producing bulk sugar, and, therefore, the excess sugar that we have after our bulk obligation is then sent for packaging. We also have a separate contract to produce packaged sugar.”
He further explained that while government is moving to bring value-added production to the industry by packaging sugar, the bulk export of sugar to the European market is paid on or before the time of delivery.
Payment, however, for packaged sugar is not immediate and could take months. Dr Ramsammy noted that while the priority is to produce bulk sugar for export, the value- added product has been bringing in more financially. “That is why GuySuCo is moving in a direction, where we will be increasing the proportion of value-added products, but the bulk sugar are long-term contracts, so we have to meet these long-term contracts, to meet those contractual obligations.”

All the previous contracts signed by government had to focus on bulk sugar and since the industry did not have the capacity, the idea of creating a modern state-of-the-art sugar factory that could also help promote value-added production was conceptualised. The Enmore sugar plant, combined with the Enmore sugar factory, currently produces 80,000 tonnes of sugar.
The agriculture minister said that the Enmore sugar plant can duplicate its machines, to accommodate extra production lines, which will help to produce more sugar and could meet a maximum target of 90,000 tonnes of sugar.
“The European market still wants bulk sugar, because they have the value-added and unless we prepare ourselves, we will be stuck with long-term contracts that will not be to our benefit… that is the line we are taking now and that is part of the turnaround plan to produce more packaged sugar,” Dr Ramsammy said.
At present, packaged sugar (Demerara Gold) is used locally and exported to different countries, including the United States and Caricom countries. The country has launched a new brand of sugar called “Demerara Brown”.
This new product line is not available in the local market. So far, the Trinidadian market has responded well to the brand. Government anticipates high demand for this new brand in several other markets across the Caribbean, based on numerous requests.

Mechanisation of the industry
In admitting that one of the major challenges for the industry is a labour shortage, the agriculture minister stated that this problem is being addressed through the mechanisation of the industry.
Dr Ramsammy said, “Mechanisation of the industry is imperative and Enmore is about 62 per cent mechanised.” According to him, two Bilitors were procured by the government and are being used at the Enmore and Skeldon plants.
One of the Bilitors can do the work of some 120 cane harvesters. He posited that the sugar industry and many other local industries are plagued by a manpower shortage. At present, some 3000 excavators are operating in the mining sector, which has led to many persons abandoning jobs in the sugar industry. People are also taking up jobs in other sectors across the country.
Dr Ramsammy said with a fully mechanised sugar sector, the industry will be able to compete with others and reach its peak, making a larger contribution to the economy.