| The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySucO) yesterday sought to twist the truth on the Enmore Packaging Plant, denying that managers at the location told Kaieteur News the plant was out of operation because the sugar was being exported by bulk.The Corporation admitted that at the time Kaieteur News reporter visited the plant (two Saturdays ago), it was out of operation and had been for the entire of the first crop up to that point.Yudhistheir PersaudIt was Managers Yudhisthir Persaud and Akbar Ally who said that the plant was out of operation because the sugar being produced at Enmore was meeting bulk export demands. No other reason was given.In fact, when asked about the sensibility of having the plant sit idle, Mr. Ally told Kaieteur News that it was either GuySuCo lose the market for bulk sugar or lose the market for packaged sugar. In this case, he said, the Corporation chose to meet its demand for bulk sugar, and as a result there was no sugar to meet the market for packaged sugar. Mr. Persaud also indicated to Kaieteur News that the packaged sugar does not bring in significantly more revenues than the bulk sugar.GuySuCo claimed that the plant started to operate last Wednesday. The managers had undertaken to take Kaieteur News on a tour of the facility when it is in operation, but no such invitation was extended. In fact, when Mr. Persaud was asked when the plant would be in operation again, he said he could not give a date.In a press release, GuySuCo gave a different story about the reason why the plant was not in operation.It said that grinding operations commenced at Enmore on July 31, 2012 and that during the period July 31 to August 18 erratic weather conditions affected continuous cane supply to the factory hence sugar production and “sugar flow-through” on recently maintained equipment was reduced.It said that factory equipment underwent significant maintenance work during the last out-of-crop period and it is standard operating practice for a sugar plant of this nature to ensure that the first batches of sugar be directed to bulk (bulk is intended for re-processing) after a maintenance period (especially a major one). This period allows for operational “fine-tuning” and to guarantee product consistency for direct consumption sugars required for the packaging plant, GuySuCo stated.The Corporation said that it is on this basis that managers advised that the plant has been focusing on bulk production.Kaieteur News reporter Neil Marks who visited the plant and spoke with the two managers on the location, said it was clear that whoever wrote the press release is badly misinformed, since no such explanation was offered by the two managers.In fact, Marks stated that the very two managers, Ally and Persaud, telephoned Mr. Vineet Verma,Nike Shox Outlet Clearance, the representative of Surendra Engineering (which constructed the plant) to speak with him about the plant. Mr. Verma stated emphatically that the plant is “100% OK” and would be ready to operate once sugar is available.Akbar AllyThe Corporation said that the story by Kaieteur News was intended to mislead the public that the plant was not being utilized even though the newspaper was advised that of the 8,498 tonnes of sugar produced by the Enmore location in the First Crop of 2012 – 7,828 tonnes was packaged.However, it seems that it is GuySuCo that it is intending to mislead, since the report clearly states that the factory was in operation during the first crop. In fact, the newspaper quoted the Estate Manager as saying the factory produced approximately 21,000 tonnes of sugar, and most of that went to the packaging plant.Kaieteur News would not debate who has their facts mixed up, whether it is those who wrote the press release or the Estate Manager, but it is certainly not the newspaper.Given that the plant is now in operation, Kaieteur News plan to visit the location today.The idle equipment at the Enmore Sugar Packaging plant. |
