A South African firm has been hired by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to help ensure that the Skeldon Sugar estate is fully operational, Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy has announced.
Specifically, the company, Bosch, is being paid US$130,000 to design the modifications that are needed at the Skeldon plant, Paul Bhim, the Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo told Kaieteur News.



The estate was commissioned at a cost of US$181 million in August 2009, and was hailed as the boon to the survival of the sugar industry.  However, the factory has been plagued by numerous problems and has not been able to function as was intended.  Former Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, had said that the government was looking for an Indian or Chinese company to manage the Skeldon Estate.  But the new Agriculture Minister said he is unaware that the government had or has such a plan.  Ramsammy said he remains “unconvinced that we need outside managers.”  However, he stated that management agrees with him that there is a need for some technical experts to assist in certain aspects of the factory operation.“In this regard, we are contracting the South African Engineering firm, Bosch to assist in ensuring the factory is fully operational,” Dr Ramsammy stated.

The South African firm is looking to design the modifications of three main aspects of the factory, the GuySuCo CEO told Kaieteur News. He said these are the bagasse plow (the feeder system, that leads to the boiler), the conveyor system and the condensate tank.  Dr Ramsammy said that the plan to fix most of the design flaws of the factory commenced this out of crop period and is expected to be completed by the first crop in 2013.  “A decision has not yet been taken on correcting the problems with the punt dumper. The defects which will be fixed are those in relation to the bagasse feeding system, the cane conveyor system, installing a condensate tank and obtaining a clean water supply to the factory,” Ramsammy stated.

The establishment of the factory was part of a modernisation plan by GuySuCo that was not achieved. The project involves expanded cane cultivations, the establishment of a refinery, and the co-generation of electricity for the national grid.

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. The Skeldon estate was designed to produce 110,000 tonnes of sugar per annum. In 2010, production was 33,237 tonnes and in 2011, production was 29,410 tonnes.
According to Dr Ramsammy, attaining the full operation depends on the defects of the factory being fixed and addressing the field issues.  He said that the mechanization of the field operation now means that the weather conditions will have a greater impact on operation and this has been a major impact in 2011 and so far in 2012.